Teen Titans: The Hidden Evil

This is my first story so go easy please :P

"All things truly wicked start from an innocence".

ERNEST HEMINGWAY, A Moveable Feast

"No… not again", thought the girl curled up and hiding in an alleyway. "I can't hurt anybody else, I just can't…" Just when she thought she was regaining control of herself, she heard two sets of footsteps approaching.

"Just keep walking" she cried in her head, "please don't talk to me… just walk on past." Her heart fell when they stopped right in front of her.

"Miss?" said a childlike voice; she looked up to see a little boy with his hand stretched out holding a 5 dollar bill, and his father watching from behind. "I want you to have this."

A single tear dropped from the girl's eye, before the hunger took over and the screaming started.

Robin stood in the living room looking at a monitor highlighting multiple areas around jump city. "There has to be some connection, I just have to find it."

"Dude, there isn't. We have gone through everything. The victims have no connection." Cyborg said.

Robin turned to see the bionic titan sitting on the couch. "There has to be, Cyborg. Every serial killer has one."

"What if it isn't a serial killer though?"

"Look at the facts, Cyborg: he has killed every week for the last 3 months and every victim is missing his or her heart." Robin said in his annoyed voice. "Trust me: it's a serial killer, and all of these people have something in common that we're overlooking.

Robin shook his head. His team didn't get it; they have never dealt with a villain like this. They never fought Joker, Riddler, Two-Face and the other truly insane villains that he had faced. They all had patterns and whoever this "Heart Eater" or whatever the media was choosing to call him at the moment, had to have one too. He just had to crack it.

Robin was so lost in thought, he never even noticed that Cyborg had left.

"What happened?" Starfire, asked Cyborg when he walked into her room.

"He's obsessed; it's like Slade all over again." Cyborg replied

"No… we cannot go through that again! Our team might not survive it!" Starfire cried. Cyborg just looked at the floor.

"Star, I don't think the team is going to last much longer anyway." Cyborg said without looking up from the floor. Starfire grabbed Cyborg and pulled his head up.

"What do you mean?" She cried.

"Star… For the last 3 months Robin hasn't even talked to us, he has been so obsessed. Raven has been more anti – social then usual. And Beast Boy… well…"

"Why?" Beast Boy asked himself for what felt like the millionth time as he sat on his bed in his dark room, as was the usual pattern for him for the past 3 months. He picked up the Heart Shaped box next to him.

"I love you, Terra, why did you leave me?" He then recalled the last words she said to him, "Things Change." But why do things have to? he thought. They never change for the better.

He thought back to the time after the fight with the white robot. Sure, his arrival helped the Titans defeat it, but by the time he got back Terra had disappeared. He tried to find her but she never went back to the school and hadn't been seen since.

She was right, though, he thought. The city had changed, new, more blood thirsty villains had been coming out of the woodworks, while their old villains have been either disappearing or killed by the new ones.

Flashes of the bodies of Control Freak, Fang, and Mumbo-jumbo appeared before him. All killed by some teenager named Breath Taker trying to make a name for herself. He didn't even want to think about the "Heart Eater".

"Yes, things do change, but why did you have to?" He whispered to himself.

Terra nervously walked down the dimly lit street. "Dammit, why did I have to go to the late show?" she said to herself. Ever since her powers had disappeared she had become afraid to be out at night, especially in Las Vegas. The streets weren't safe to walk alone on.

Then she started to hear footsteps behind her. She began to be afraid. Too afraid to turn around, she started walking faster. The footsteps then started going faster as well. No! She thought, who is it, what do they want? Her mind flashed to Slade: has he found me!? No, there is no way, I covered my tracks, it's not possible. But then who is it?

She forced herself to stop and turn around. She sighed, nobody was there. She laughed nervously and turned around to see a massive man in front of her holding a knife.

"What's a pretty blonde like you doing out so late?" The man said with a twisted smile on his face. Before Terra could reply, he grabbed her and threw her roughly against the side of a building.

"Stop, please!" Terra pleaded.

"Don't lie, you know you want this." The rapist said as he pressed his knife on Terra's neck. He then began to unbutton his jeans, and Terra screamed.

"Shut up you fucking bit…" The man was caught off by Terra's eyes, which were glowing yellow. Suddenly everything started to shake and the ground underneath the man opened and swallowed him whole.

"What the…" Terra said. "My powers…they're… back…" She then heard a lady screaming about the earthquake and bolted away.

By the time Terra had left, the screaming lady had arrived the hole and looked down. "Is anybody down there?!" She screamed down. She was about to take out her phone to call 911 when a demonic creature made of pure darkness with blood red eyes crawled out of the hole. Before the lady could scream again, the creature decapitated her with one swipe of its claws.

The creature then took a humanoid shape and revealed a communication device hidden in its darkness. "Shroud to Ouroboros: it's done."

The cybernetic entity smiled. His current project was going smoother than he'd anticipated: "Terra" had accessed her powers already. "Shroud, return to base, good work."

"Yes sir." Shroud replied, then signed off.

The entity lay back in his chair, when a soldier wearing white and black armor that looked like it was surgically attached to his skin entered the room. He saluted. "Sir, Alice has claimed two more victims. Is it time to retrieve her?"

"Was she hesitant?" The entity asked.

"From what we can tell, yes, sir." The soldier replied

"Then no, leave her alone."

"But sir, she has been on the loose for 3 months. Don't you thin..."

"DO NOT QUESTION ME!" The entity boomed. "Until she can kill without any remorse, she is no use to us. So we leave her alone."

"Yes, General Ishii." The Soldier answered. He saluted smartly, and then left.

Ishii then brought up an image of Alice on the screen in front of him. "Soon, little girl, you will become my greatest achievement."