A/N: I don't know how long this is going to end up being. Probably very long. A few notes to get through at the beginning here, and then I promise I won't bug you with author's notes ever again.

This story is set a while after the ending of the series. Let's say that our heroes (and villains) are roughly 17 years old, give or take. Not much older, but enough so to incorporate a few more mature themes.

Warnings: Plenty to go around before we get started. First off, bad language. Not so much in this chapter—just one curse, if I remember correctly. Later on, once the real bad guys start getting involved, it'll get much worse.

Secondly, the pairings. There are and will be plenty of different pairings featured at different points in this story. Quickly listing the ones I have currently planned—Robin & Starfire, Red X & Starfire, Beast Boy & Terra, and Beast Boy & Raven. I don't have any plans for Cyborg yet, but I don't want to leave him out, so for now the only romantic information I can give you on him is that I've got something in the works. That can't really be revealed until I get a bit further into the plot, though. Sorry.

Lastly, I'm very much experimenting with my writing style in this fic. You can therefore expect to see some odd things thrown in here throughout. Nothing too odd, but some differences here and there.

I really hope you guys enjoy this. I've worked hard on it and I have a very solid 'universe' set up for the Titans in this fic. Without further ado, here you go—enjoy the first chapter. Don't forget to review. :)

My Own Worst Enemy
Chapter 1 – Terra

The hour was late, and summer was dying fast. The air was cool enough to bring a chill along with it when a lazy breeze sauntered past Red X.

The adolescent thief couldn't help shivering slightly when the cold air blew past him, rousing his charcoal cape around his body as it did so. His altitude undoubtedly had a hand in the degree of the temperature change—he was standing atop the highest building in Jump's center, carefully eyeing an unmarked van while it pulled slowly away from the city's largest bank.

His face wore a small smirk in spite of the fact that no one could see it; even if there was somebody around him, his stolen mask would block any onlooker's view of his expression. His stance, for once, was nonchalant—one arm dangled casually at his side, the other placed uncaringly on his hip—while he stared downward at the van far below him. In his right hand, his fingers absently toyed with a red shuriken while his brain worked at the possible angles he could take in the heist he was about to pull.

Several nights had gone by now the same way for the thief. Shortly after nightfall nearly a week ago, he'd come to this rooftop, looking down on the very same target he was monitoring tonight. Since then, every night had been the same—the van always pulled up at the same time, took roughly the same amount of time to load, and used the same route on its way out of the inner city with the excess deposits from the reputable bank.

When he first began watching this nightly journey, X had told himself that he would allow at least two weeks of observation to pass before he would attempt to interfere with the systematic transportation. Two weeks, at the time, had seemed like a sufficient amount of time to study the pattern and plan for any unexpected occurrences. Now he was six nights into it and he'd already grown bored with waiting. Tonight would be the night he would become a few thousand dollars richer.

The van traveled a block or so from the bank it was leaving behind. X stepped almost automatically toward the edge of the building, keeping his eyes trained on his target. His fingers flexed subconsciously, holding the shuriken between them. His muscles slightly tensed; he prepared to hurl the small, X-shaped weapon downward toward one of the van's tires, having boundless confidence in his aim even from this high above his focus. He'd gone through this scenario several times in his mind—pop a tire or two, shoot a sharpened X down from his palm using the power of the xenothium in his suit, and presto: the van would be in two perfect halves in no time. A quick teleport down to knock out the guards would give him all the time he'd need to grab what he wanted and make his exit before the neighborhood superheroes were on his trail.

Just as he was readying himself to throw the first X-shaped device, he thought he heard a footstep behind him. The thief froze, darting his eyes toward his shoulder without turning his head to see who had appeared behind him. At the angle he was currently positioned, it was impossible for him to see behind him without turning; still, he was unwilling to give up his plan so soon. A small, invisible smirk made its way onto his face while he silently weighed his options. He still had enough time to turn around and take out whoever was trying to sneak up on him before his opportunity to hit the truck with a clear shot would completely pass him by. Alternatively, he could ignore them altogether and proceed with his operation as planned—he would simply need to concern himself with escaping from said assailant rather than simply making off unnoticeably into the night.

A few seconds of consideration passed before X settled on the former choice—running away wasn't his style, after all. His arm remained tense in preparation to throw; instead of throwing the shuriken downward, however, he whirled about to hurl it toward whoever had attempted to sneak up behind him. When he turned, he wasn't met with the image of a Teen Titan as he'd expected to be. Instead, he caught a very quick but clear view of a large piece of iron swinging straight toward his face. Automatically, his eyes went wide.

Whack!

After that, everything went dark.

¸ o ´ o ¸ o ´

"Ugh…"

Blurry vision didn't reveal much of anything; it was a realization that X would rather not have had to come to.

He was in pain. So much physical pain, and not just in his head—in his entire body. The right side of his forehead was throbbing almost unbearably; the memory of the large, metal object that hit him was clear enough in his mind to explain the reason behind that. An attempt to bring a hand to his forehead to massage away some of the pain was abruptly stopped by a strange jerking sensation in his aching arm.

Blinking, he strained to look up, suddenly realizing that both his arms were stretched above him. They were tied together at the wrist and attached to the ceiling with a steel cable in a knot that a Boy Scout would have been proud of. Glancing downward, he found that his legs were tied to the ground in a similar fashion; he was dangling in the middle of the room, suddenly completely aware of the pain in his arms from supporting his full body weight while he was unconscious. He wasn't sure how long it had been, but judging by the ache in each of his limbs, a considerable amount of time had passed since he'd been spying on the van traveling the streets several stories below him.

X quickly tried to assess the situation the best he could through the excruciating sting searing through his mind. Whoever it was who had snuck up on him on the rooftop hadn't intended to stop him from committing a burglary. He was obviously a prisoner, now, for one reason or another—and judging by the lengths the attacker had gone to in tying him up, the person was aware of his reputation as a skillful escape artist. He glanced to his waist, groaning in annoyance when he saw that the belt that powered his suit was missing. "Great."

He grumbled a few choice words to himself, looking back up to the cables that held his wrists while he attempted to sway his body to test the slack given by the cords tying him to the ceiling and floor. Another exasperated groan escaped his throat; it wasn't much, certainly not enough to help him escape in any way.

"Just great." The villain heaved a quick sigh, next straining to look at the floor while he tried to wiggle his ankles free from the knot they were tangled in. Again, he had no luck. He was beginning to get frustrated. "What did I do?" he mumbled to himself, pulling his eyes toward the room he was suspended in with hopes of finding something useful at least relatively near.

"You didn't do anything."

The feminine voice came from behind him; X cursed under his breath, craning his neck in an unsuccessful attempt to look over his shoulder. Still, he narrowed his eyes, hoping that he looked at least somewhat menacing in the helpless position he was currently in. "Who are you?" he demanded, wincing mildly when he heard his tone. Even through the voice distorter built into his mask—or perhaps especially through it—he sounded more like Robin than he ever would have wanted to.

The girl seemed to have caught this, as well, or at least found humor in some form at what he said; she laughed a low, unfriendly chuckle when she heard his voice through the device he spoke through. "No one of any importance," she said dismissively. Her tone was unsurprisingly just as inhospitable as her laugh had been.

X heard her footsteps while she began to walk around him, coming into his view in a matter of seconds. She was a tall girl, and very thin, with long blond hair and large blue eyes. She wore an outfit that was very ugly, in his opinion—half of her body was dressed in black, while the other half donned a detestable shade of orange. "What are you supposed to be, Halloween Girl?" he droned sarcastically against his better judgment—generally, it wasn't a good idea for one to taunt his captor when in such a precarious position. "No, let me guess—Princess Pumpkin."

The teenager didn't seem fazed by his remarks; she only smirked, lowering her head slightly to give him a more sinister stare. X was slightly disturbed to notice an eerie golden glint as it passed quickly across her eyes. It appeared only for an instant—the anti-hero wondered for a moment if he was losing his mind.

She took no notice of the surprised widening of his eyes; the mask did well to cover up the change in his expression. "It's comments like that that end up making my job ten times easier, you know," she said pointedly. He didn't like the snide tone in her voice, but the worry she'd inadvertently caused him with the shine in her eyes stopped him from retorting as he normally would have. "It's easy to kill someone you don't even like."

Kill? X's mind echoed the key word while he blinked stupidly at the tiny girl in front of him. "You're going to kill me?" he blurted, sounding much more disbelieving than he'd intended to. Her eyes narrowed slightly; he found himself unable to suppress an uncharacteristically loud, bellowing laugh. Granted, he wasn't in the best position in the world to be laughing at anyone who claimed they would end his life—but still, the thought of his demise being brought about by such a skinny teenage girl was completely unbelievable. "How old are you, kid?"

The smirk on her face had dimmed to an uninviting scowl. "Probably older than you think," she snapped, lifting her hands in front of her face so that her palms were stretched toward him.

She couldn't see it, but he was still smiling in amusement, watching with interest while she prepared to do whatever it was she was going to do to him. One corner of her mouth twitched upward into a devious grin; his hidden expression faltered as her eyes and hands once again began to emit the spine-chilling yellow glow he'd thought he'd seen a moment ago.

"And I guarantee I'm stronger than you think."

He felt the cords tying his arms to the ceiling subtly tense. The sensation was followed quickly by a loud cracking sound. X bit his lip hard, suddenly intensely wishing he hadn't said anything to make this girl angry. An instant later, a large chunk of rock fell from the ceiling, landing roughly two yards away from the captured thief. The rock annihilated a table that had happened to be in its path. Another loud crunch sounded from the collision; a cloud of dirt and dust quickly rose around the pile of rocks that now adorned the center of the room.

X swallowed thickly, moving his eyes from the wreckage to the now normal-looking teenager before him. She flipped a lock of hair casually over her shoulder, tossing him a quick smirk before beginning to walk toward the other end of the room.

"I'm a geomancer," she said while she walked, not so much as glancing over her shoulder—though she wasn't completely oblivious to his stunned expression, hidden as it may have been. "This room was carved out of a mountainside. There's plenty of rock above and beneath us."

She left her statement at that; he watched nervously as she neared a computer console attached to a large monitor along the far wall. Without his belt to supply the xenothium for his suit, he knew that he was as good as dead. I've gotta get out of here.

"I need you alive for a few more minutes, though," the girl continued, punching a sequence of keys into the computer. X probed the room, searching for a glimpse of anything that might be any help to him. "We've got a broadcast to make."

"Broadcast?" the thief repeated dumbly. His eyes finally locked on to an item that would be of use to him—his belt was draped carelessly across the top of the computer console the girl was using. X cursed to himself, narrowing his eyes at the object. If only you were twenty-five or so feet closer. Not that I can exactly reach out and grab you at the moment, he added as an afterthought, beginning to feel especially stupid for engaging in a silent dialogue with his belt, of all things.

The blond was unknowing of his inner confliction. "Yep. I've gotta get in touch with some friends of yours." She continued to type into the keyboard until a large, blue display of the simple word "Connecting" appeared on the screen. Then, she stepped back in satisfaction, placing one hand on her hip while throwing a glance over her shoulder toward the anti-hero dangling behind her. "Turns out, you're the perfect bait to lure my favorite team of superheroes to inevitable doom."

X chose to keep his rebuttals to himself. Instead, he directed his eyes toward the screen, watching it snap to a scene of normal television snow before showing him a picture of five surprised-looking heroes.

¸ o ´ o ¸ o ´

"I have you! I so have you!"

"No way, man! I have never lost at this game to you, and I'm not about to start now!"

Beast Boy and Cyborg were intensely battling each other in one of Cyborg's favorite racing games, and, surprisingly, Beast Boy was well in the lead. The half-robot was quick to blame various outside elements, ranging from his lack of sleep the night before to the bad weather they'd been having in Jump City lately, for his poor performance in the first two laps of the race. Now that they were on the third and final lap, Cyborg was beginning to panic. Losing at any video game to Beast Boy was certainly not one of his favorite pastimes—much less a game he considered himself to be one of the best in the world at.

The pair of gamers was seated in the center of the C-shaped sofa in the operations room, facing the television screen directly while they each jerked their bodies in conjunction with the movement of the cars they controlled in the virtual racing world. Raven was sitting off to the left of Beast Boy, a thick, multi-chaptered book in her hands. Her eyes, however, were glued to the screen; even the empath who had declared herself anti-Gamestation on many occasions had to appreciate the fact that history was unfolding before her very eyes. Beast Boy had never beaten Cyborg—at any game, as far as she could remember—and to watch such an event as it was happening was appealing even to her.

Behind the couch, Starfire was poised in the air, her emerald eyes shining with excitement and her fists clenched eagerly before her hovering form. "Go, Beast Boy!" she cheered, absolutely thrilled to be watching such an incredible event. It was true that she didn't understand the concept of video games in general very well, but she definitely understood the thrill of victory. Day after day, she watched her small, green friend dejectedly trudge away from the television with watery eyes and huge frown upon his face. Now was his chance to rise above his constant defeater and conquer him, once and for all! The alien princess was overjoyed by the changeling's chance to turn fate around on their robotic teammate.

A bit further behind her, the team's leader was seated in the kitchen area of the room, watching in mild amusement along with the rest of the group while the epic race unfolded on the screen. The small smile his lips wore was more due to Starfire's excitement than Beast Boy's historic opportunity to beat Cyborg at a racing game—after all, Robin did it all the time. Still, it was cute to see her get so excited about something so trivial that she usually cared so little about. It simply went further to prove to him that she truly was the team's biggest supporter: she was always there to cheer someone on, no matter how indifferent she normally was toward whatever task she was supporting for her teammate.

The distance to the finish line was dwindling quickly, and Beast Boy's car was still well ahead of Cyborg's. The changeling's grin was growing wider by the second. "I'm gonna win!" he professed, rising to his feet to jump excitedly on the couch cushion; Cyborg gritted his teeth and made restrained growling noises in a futile attempt to mentally will his virtual car to go faster.

"Hooray for our friend Beast Boy!" Starfire cheered, clasping her hands together and spiraling joyously into the air. Robin couldn't help chuckling to himself; Raven lowered the book before her face another inch, her jaw growing slightly slack at the sight of Beast Boy's car approaching the finish line. He would have the race in the bag in another few seconds…

The picture of the game suddenly cut away, drawing a horrified gasp from each of the Titans (save for Robin, who truly couldn't have cared less). "No!" Beast Boy wailed, falling face-first onto the ground in complete dismay.

"All right!" Cyborg cheered, raising his controller into the air as though he was declared the automatic victor. "My legacy lives on, baby! Yeah!"

Raven's eyes narrowed slightly at her robotic teammate before she returned the book to its proper position before her face. "That hardly counts as continuing your legacy," she cynically remarked. "Beast Boy would have won if the game didn't…"

She trailed off, returning her stare to the screen as an odd, fuzzy picture began to come onto it. Robin, as well, focused his stare at the image that was beginning to form on the television. "Someone's tapping into our communications frequency," he realized aloud, his stare quickly turning to a glare as he pushed himself away from the kitchen counter, moving to stand next to Starfire's floating form while he and the others waited for the picture to come into focus.

The image was instantly recognizable. Starfire gasped in shock, the first of the five to make any sound at all; she threw her hands up over her mouth while her eyes widened dramatically at the sight before them. "No way," Raven said quietly, lowering the book in her hands until it sat in her lap. Robin and Cyborg simply went bug-eyed at the smirk the teens were met with. Beast Boy was the only one to shout at the picture as Robin had intended to do if the face of a known enemy of theirs had popped up for them to see.

"Terra?"

The changeling dropped the Gamestation controller he was holding; the smirk on the blonde's face never faltered. "Glad you still remember my name," she said smoothly, an obvious hint of sarcasm in her tone.

"I—how could—why—" Beast Boy stuttered, unable to form a thought complete enough to express to the girl on the screen in front of him. Fortunately, not all of the young heroes were as dumbfounded as Beast Boy; Raven quickly replaced the look of surprise on her face with an unpalatable scowl. Before she could so much as open her mouth, however, the ex-Titan on the screen stated the answer to the very accusing question the empath was about to ask.

"I'm sure you can tell by what I'm wearing that this isn't a request for a friendly reunion," the girl remarked, gesturing lightly toward the orange-and-black color theme of her outfit. Robin's eyes narrowed at her; she pretended not to notice. "I've been instructed to contact you because I happened to have come across someone who might be of interest to you."

"Don't think for a second that we're going to bargain with you," the boy wonder stated warningly. Cyborg and Raven, in turn, nodded their heads; Starfire simply continued to glare at the screen, and Beast Boy was still too flabbergasted to do anything.

Terra only laughed in response. "This isn't a bargain. It's very cut-and-dry, actually. Behind me, lacking his all-powerful belt and bound by steel cables, is the notorious thief you five have been after for a few years now." She paused, stepping away to give the Titans a view of her captive—there he was, just as she'd described, looking particularly angered by his helpless position. "The deal is simple. Get here within one hour and he's yours. You can do what you'd like with him—take him to jail, torture him, or make him a member of your team, for all I care."

"And if we don't?" Robin prodded, crossing his arms haughtily over his chest. He knew that they'd be there—there was no way that they could let a criminal with such an extensive wanted record slip through their fingers when he was in such a vulnerable condition. Still, she was clearly working for his greatest enemy; he couldn't give the man such satisfaction as knowing that he had the Titans right where he wanted them.

Nonchalantly, the blonde shrugged, shifting her position in front of the camera so that Red X was no longer visible behind her. "Then I'll take care of him for you," she said simply, her blue eyes staring forebodingly into the camera to get the implication across. X was hoping that she could let the threat go unspoken, but Robin was never very good with subtleties.

"You mean you're going to kill him?" the boy wonder blurted in surprise; X wished that he could smack his forehead in exasperation.

Terra, seemingly, was experiencing a similar feeling. She sighed in disgust at Robin's blatant remark while Starfire once again gasped in shock. "You always were the smart one," the geomancer commented sarcastically, typing a few keys on her keyboard while she spoke. "I've downloaded my location into your computer. You've got one hour."

With that, her image promptly cut away from them, the picture of the racing game popping almost instantly back onto the screen. Beast Boy's car had crashed into a lamppost on the side of the virtual road; Cyborg's, meanwhile, had traveled the entire straight-shot distance to the finish line, thus making him the winner of the race.

All five of them simply stared at the screen for a few seconds until Cyborg's booming voice gleefully filled the room.

"Booyah!"

¸ o ´ o ¸ o ´

The image of the teenage heroes showed them to be just as surprised when it vanished as when it appeared. Darkness once again enveloped the room when the screen dimmed; X was only barely able to see the reflection of a faint light that shone off of Terra's blonde hair. Still, he could see her well enough to tell that she hadn't turned to face him when she next began to speak.

"The deal with the Titans I just made is meaningless. I'm sure you already knew that."

A few strained seconds of silence passed before the thief let himself come to terms to what she was implying. "Why didn't you just kill me on the rooftop, then?" he asked nonchalantly, surprising even himself with the uncaring tone he used in his questioning.

Casually, the girl flipped a lock of blonde hair over her shoulder, turning her head toward him; he could barely make out the small smirk that had graced her lips. "I needed to keep you alive to show to them. What sort of bargain would I be making if all I had to offer was your mangled corpse?"

Subconsciously, X cringed at her word choice. He'd never liked the words "mangled" or "corpse" being used in any way when in reference to himself.

"They've seen you, now," the teenager continued, her smirk deepening while her ice blue eyes narrowed at his imprisoned form. "Meaning, from this point forward, you're useless to me. Every second you're alive is a second you should consider yourself lucky for."

The girl lifted a hand before her face before the thief could so much as think of a retort. An eerie yellow glow quickly encased it; X felt the ceiling above him shake unsteadily.

"Sadly, today doesn't seem to be your lucky day."

A tremendous crack sounded above him. Panicked, X did the only thing he could think of: he quickly swung his body weight in a desperate attempt to dodge the rocks from falling atop his helpless body. As the ceiling began to collapse, the cable that held his arms in place went with it. The anti-hero fell off to the side, yelping in pain when the rocks from above him crashed down onto his legs. A horrified gasp followed from the ex-Titan across the room. X's pulse quickened; he knew he'd managed to throw her off guard, at least.

Once they were free from the tension provided by the ceiling, the thief found the steel cables much easier to remove from his wrists. He was quickly able to slip out of them and sweep the debris that had fallen atop him aside to free his legs as well. The sound of shifting earth came from above him once more; X quickly rolled to the side to avoid being hit with another mass of rocks from the top of the makeshift cavern.

"Stop that!" Terra shouted at him, irritation plainly audible in her voice. The criminal ignored her, narrowing his eyes at the device he knew he desperately needed—the belt that was still sitting on the computer beside her—instead of bothering to think up a clever comeback. He needed that belt if he had any hope to make it out of here alive. Luck, he was aware, could only carry him so far.

A crumbling sound beneath his feet snapped him out of his thoughts; he jumped aside just in time to avoid falling into a newly formed hole in the ground. The geomancer cursed at him quietly before hurling a few boulders from the pile she'd recently collapsed in his direction. X was able to dodge two of them and smack the third aside. Without giving her time to pick up more, the thief ran straight toward the girl, keeping his eyes on his goal and silently praying that she wasn't fast enough to hit him before he reached the belt.

Her eyes, in turn, widened with the realization of what he was after. "Don't even think about it!" she shouted, raising her glowing hands before her. He barely even heard her—the thief mindlessly dodged the rocks she hurdled toward him as they came. The distance between the two of them grew ever smaller; X readied his arm to forcibly knock her aside when he reached her.

As he grew closer, the geomancer lifted her hands toward the ceiling. A loud crack resulted; the thief quickly realized that the girl could easily ward off the falling rocks from her own body if she brought the whole room down atop him. Just as suddenly as the thought entered his mind, X pushed it away—he hardly had time for worries at this point. The belt was so close—just past her, now—and all he needed was a few more seconds…

As planned, the criminal shoved the tiny blonde aside, snatching his belt off of the computer next to where she'd stood in a heartbeat. An instant later, he was struck in the side of the head with a small boulder. X fell to the ground, somewhat dazed, while Terra pushed herself to her feet, her blue eyes filled with the hope that the boulder had effectively rendered the thief unconscious. When she caught sight of him, she wasn't met with the sprawled, unconscious form she'd wanted to see. Instead, she saw his eyes narrow from behind his mask just before his image vanished from her sight.

"Shit!" the tiny girl cursed loudly, whirling around to see where he'd teleported to. Her eyes only met with darkness; he was nowhere to be seen. "This isn't part of the plan! What am I supposed to do?"

Her panicked voice echoed through the empty cavern without a response from the rocky walls. X was pressed hard against a darkened corner, holding his breath to avoid being detected. He had his belt back now—he was positive that he could get out of here alive. He surmised that he still had a good forty-five minutes before the Titans would arrive to presumably collect him for the police.

He knew that it was wrong, but watching her panicked expression while her eyes darted back and forth within the empty cavern only convinced him that he needed to stay and torture her for at least a while more. He only had to be gone within forty-five minutes.

The anti-hero smirked to himself, teleporting briefly to a spot just behind the girl and tapping her on the shoulder. She gasped loudly and whirled about, glowing hands poised instantly before her face, but by the time she was facing him he had once again disappeared. The geomancer's blue eyes darted fretfully around her petite form. With the teleportation power provided by the xenothium, he could be anywhere. Anywhere. X's supercilious voice sounded snidely from somewhere behind her, sending a nervous chill down her spine while she continued to search for him in the dimly-lit room.

"Now, I'm going to show you why I like this belt so much."