Deus K Amo

Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it?

Authors Note: Hello everyone. This is a Teen Titans (the animated series not the comic) Action/Romance. This is my first shot at anything other than general writing. Please bear with me, as I still don't have a beta. I do use Microsoft Word. That said if anyone wants to volunteer to be my beta, please do. If you need a beta I would be more than happy to help you out. I will only beta for one writer at a time. If you wish to acquire my services please e-mail or contact me on ICQ. This goes for everyone. Trust me. Enjoy the Fic.

Chapter One: Inner Demons

            The Teen Titans were in the middle of something big. The creature was hideous and Slade was standing behind it. The creature was twelve feet tall, had seven legs and one arm ending in a pincer. It had a tail like a scorpion and the body of a snake. But the face was chilling. It was that of a small child grotesquely contorted into a semblance of pain and suffering. No one could look at its face without a wave of revulsion coming over him or her.

            Oddly enough Slade hadn't summoned it. The Titans had been in a pitched battle with Slade and his minions. Suddenly a large swirling portal of black and orange had appeared out of nowhere in the center of the street. The melee came to a halt while the monster climbed and struggled out of the portal. It had taken a full three minutes for the thing to get loose and it started attacking anything near it. Slade and his lackeys were now fleeing the scene leaving the Titans to deal with the monster.

            It was not faring well. Nothing seemed to phase the beast and it was strong. It simply chased them through the streets of the city striking at times with its tail. Its horrible gray hide glinted in the sunlight as it took a great stab in the direction of Robin. They were soon cornered at the beach. They had nowhere to go as the hideous beast closed in on them. Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, and Terra all had little hope of escaping the fate that seemed resigned to them.

            They all saw what happened next. Just above where the Titans stood a shimmering appeared. It was multihued, like a rainbow had gotten out of control. The monster stopped to look at the odd shimmering. No one dared move as the wavering became rigid and solidified. Then a figure dropped from where the shimmering had been. He drew his weapon, a long blade, and planted it into the sand in front of him. He held the hilt of the weapon tightly and lifted one of his arms. It began to glow with the same odd shimmering as when he had appeared. They could not make out what he was saying but it was clear he was reciting some ancient chant.

            The monster screamed. Its figure began to waver. It screamed again and again. Before the very eyes of the Titans they saw something as big as a house disappear. The seven legged, pincer clawed, monster disappeared from the beach as though it had never existed. The Titans stared in wonder at this feat.

            He did not turn. He stood still as a statue. Robin cautiously approached the stone-like figure. The others followed suit at a slight distance. Robin had gone no more than three feet when the man moved. He pulled his blade out of the ground and placed it into the sheath at his side. He turned and the Titans saw for the first time the man's face. It was young but held a scar. It ran the length of his deeply angled face from the tip of his chin to the peak of his brow. He looked to be only nineteen, one year older than most of the Titans themselves. He wore a gray trench coat that was open at the front to reveal a deep green t-shirt and a pair of frayed and worn gray denim jeans. His low hiking boots barely covered his black socks and he wore a pair of sunglasses that were silver. The thin metal frames accentuated his Elven features and the lenses were free of all scratches and smudges. The man's light brown hair was short cropped and messy. On his hands he wore tight fitting, black leather gloves.

            He stood as if waiting for someone to speak.

            "Thank you for helping us," Robin was the first to speak, after all he was the leader of the Titans. "We are…"

            "The Teen Titans." The man's voice was a rich tenor. "I am Sword."

((()))

            The Titans took Sword to the Titan Tower. There he began to explain what had happened. He told them that what they had fought was a demon from a far of alternate universe. He told them that something from one of the other universes (he used the term realms) was gathering power.

            Raven was in the back of the group listening. She had defeated her father and cleansed herself of his evil. However she chose to forgo the change into the white cape. She knew that her father was in no way responsible for the "Demon" that had attacked. She sat listening as Sword explained that the demon had come from a direct parallel realm to the Titans own.

            "So," Starfire asked intrigued, "How many universes are there?"

            "There are too many to count in the Multi-Verse. I have visited nearly five thousand including this one." He seemed to ponder something for a moment. "Yes," he mumbled, "maybe I should." Sword thought in silence for some time before speaking up again. "The Realm that the demon came from is called Xith. It is a world of infinite wastes. The Daemon Cargan is planning a war upon another Daemon and as such he needs supplies. He needs to take control of other worlds to receive these supplies. Yours is the last world I need to seal in order to ensure a stalemate between Cargan and Mearnoz."

            The entire room was quiet. No one knew what to say next. Beast Boy shifted uncomfortably on the couch and Cyborg was vigorously adding all of the information into his memory banks. Terra was asleep on Beast Boy's shoulder and Starfire was sitting so close to Robin that you would have thought they were joined at the hip. Raven was merely silent.

            Raven sat in silence. Something about Sword interested her. He sparked her curiosity. For more than a year she had been free to explore her emotions. She could now express her feelings without loosing control of her powers. She had not however really had anything she wanted to express. Sure her friends knew her better now, but that was only natural. Something strong that she didn't recognize was inside of her. She didn't know what it was about Sword that intrigued her so but she wanted to find out. Maybe we can be friends with him. She definitely wanted more friends.

            It was getting dark and Sword asked if they had a spare room. He said he needed time to think.

            "Sure thing," said Robin, "Raven, show him the guest room." Raven stood and beckoned for the man to follow. She led him to his room, which was just across the hall from her room. He said goodnight and shut his door. Raven walked back to the den. Cyborg was working on the computer terminal; Robin and Starfire were engaging in activities that should have been kept private. Beast Boy was eating one of his famous tofu and pasta sandwiches while Terra raided the fridge.

            Raven waked over to the couch that Robin and Starfire were carousing on and spoke. "When you two are done sucking face do you think that we could discuss what we are going to do about Sword?" The couple blushed and sat upright on the couch.

            "He seems like a nice enough guy to me," Beast Boy commented before taking a bite of his sandwich. He was half sitting, half lying on the other side of the couch and Terra, food in hand, plopped down on his lap.

            "Yea," Terra agreed, "He's nice enough but he seems a bit serious for my taste."

            "What I don't get is why he never took his shades off even when it got dark," Cyborg stated.

            "Maybe his eyes are sensitive," Starfire guessed, "He said that he had been to other worlds, maybe it is darker where he comes from."

            "That seems reasonable," Robin said, "But we should probably get to know him a little better." Robin turned to raven with a serious expression on his face, "Raven I know how you feel about it but we really need you to probe his mind tomorrow. We need to know if he is telling the truth." Raven blanched. She hated probing minds. It wasn't so much out of any kind of moral belief, just that she was often disturbed by what she found. "Come on Raven we need you to do it. You don't have to go very deep. Just skim the surface and find out if he lied to us." Raven sighed resigned to her task.

((()))

            The next day at breakfast Sword showed up wearing the same things. He still had his sunglasses on as well. He did however forego his trench coat. Raven was watching him. She felt apprehensive about going into his mind. She noticed things in her nervousness that she hadn't noticed before. She saw how his shirt was tight across his chest, and how his skin was tanned a golden color. She marveled at his facial features. His jaw sloped gently to a strong chin. For some reason it intrigued her that he never took his sunglasses off. She really wanted to see his eyes.

            She looked around the room and saw the others giving her questioning glances. She sighed and sent her thought probing into his mind. At first she encountered a barrier. She was about to tackle the barrier when it just disappeared. Her mind instantly reeled at the depth of his mind. Just the surface of his thoughts seemed to go on for infinity. She quickly went searching for what she needed to know. She wanted to get out as soon as possible. She found what she was looking for after only a few moments of searching. She couldn't help but feel it was too easy. She felt a peculiar tugging as she collected the information and began to leave.

            When she reached the exit point however the barrier that had been there before blocked her. Just before it opened to admit her out she saw something that she didn't expect to find. She saw a stream of thoughts fly by her. These thoughts were of HER of all things. And then she was out.

            While she waited for the opportunity to inform her friends of what she had found she debated weather to tell them about the last thing she had seen in his mind. She decided against it. Raven felt something then. She turned and saw Sword looking her with a soft smile on his face. He excused himself to use the restroom and Raven chose that moment to tell the others what she had found.

            "He's telling the truth guys," she told them, "I saw it all."

            "So he's legit then," Cyborg concluded, "But why was he smiling at you?"

            "I have no idea."

((()))

            Raven lay in her room trying to work out what had happened. Why had his barrier let her through without a fight? Why was Sword thinking about her? Why had his barrier kept her in for that moment? A long string of questions were floating through her head as she drifted off to sleep.

            She was running down a dark corridor. She didn't know what or why she was running. She just knew that she had to run. Her powers were not working. She seemed to be alone. She was alone. Raven soon came to a junction in the hall. She had two choices.

            "Left or Right?" Raven looked around wildly to see who had spoken. Her eyes came to rest on a large framed picture half way up the wall of the junction. It was a picture of Sword. His arms were folded and his face was calm. Raven wanted to say something, ask him where she was, what she was doing here.

            "Left or Right?" He said it again. "Hurry and decide or you wont survive. Once you chose you cant go back." Raven finally found that she could speak.

            "What do you mean?"

            "Hurry and choose," his voice was becoming frantic, "Choose right to exit the maze and we will go our separate ways. Choose right and we will be no more than acquaintances." His face had a worried and frantic expression now. "Or choose left and be my friend. Choose left and battle to claim the prize you seek. Choose left to gain knowledge and your prize. Hurry and choose, you are not safe until you choose."

            She could feel danger drawing close to her. She couldn't decide. She was confused. Something about him made her curious and she wanted to know more. But her past experiences made he cautious. Closer and closer the danger came.

            "Hurry! Hurry and choose!"

            "Left!!"

            The walls began to close. The hallway to her right and the one behind her closed and the danger was gone. The picture of Sword was empty now and Raven was once more alone.

            The other Titans had similar dreams that night. All of them chose, each for their own reasons. More choices were to be made. For tonight however the dreams were over.

((()))

            Raven awoke the next morning with a splitting headache. She crawled out of bed and took some aspirin to quiet the pain. When she arrived in the kitchen for breakfast she was surprised to see everyone holding his or her heads.

            "Man do I have a brain pain," Beast Boy emerged from the fridge holding the milk jug onto his forehead to stop the pounding, "And what was with that weird dream I had last night." Everyone looked up at him in astonishment.

            "What was your dream about," asked Robin.

            "Well I was in a dark hallway running. I came to, like, this intersection and there were only two ways I could go."

            "Left or Right," Cyborg chimed in, "and there was a picture of that Sword guy there that told you to choose."

            "He kept telling you that you were in danger and that once you had chosen you would be safe," Starfire this time.

            "He said that if you chose right you would leave and he would only be an acquaintance," Terra was hugging Beast Boy close and her voice was shaking with fear, "and if you chose left you would be his friend and would have to fight to get a prize."

            "He kept telling you to hurry," Robin said, "He kept saying that you had to hurry and choose or you would be in danger."

            "And when you chose the other two hallways sealed up," Raven confirmed, "So which way did you guys choose?"

            Everyone said it at the same time, "Left."

A/N: How did you like it? Please tell me you like it. Review me and tell me if anything is wrong. I need a Beta reader and I don't know where to find one. Review, volunteer, or just enjoy. If you like Harry Potter you might like one of my other fics. Just click on my Pen Name to find all of my posted fictions. I have low self-confidence so review if you want more!