Chapter One/Escape and a redeeming chance…
Slade had them cornered and there was no escape…at least if they wanted to survive… Robin looked around at his team…his family and knew that this was most likely the end of them…they had nothing left to fight back with, nothing to throw at Slade and those demon's he'd made a bargain with…
Suddenly next to Raven appeared a strange figure that was cloaked purely in shadows and mystery that threw up a force field between them and Slade.
"I won't be able to hold it forever or for much longer…go…before they break through!"
Robin stared at the girl who had with her other hand formed a portal on their right near the caves they were trapped against.
"It'll take you safely far enough from here to regroup! Go! I can't hold both!"
Cyborg and Raven exchanged a look with Robin and then darted into the portal followed quickly by Starfire and Robin.
Beast Boy couldn't take his eyes off of the girl struggling to keep back Slade and his allies.
"GO!" She cried suddenly as the force field began to crack.
"I can't hold them off!"
Instead of reinforcing the force field like she could've she instead let it fall and sent a shot of whatever energy she controlled and knocked Beast Boy into the portal and it sealed behind him, leaving the girl in shadows and mystery behind to face Slade and his army alone…
A Death Sentence…
One year after the takeover….Jump City…
Slade had destroyed everything associated with the Teen Titans shortly after they vanished. He had those demons he'd bartered with scour the area but to no avail. The Titans had vanished into nothingness. Slade still had no idea how they had managed to escape him but didn't dwell on it. The city was his and the world was soon to follow.
Wherever the Teen Titans were, they had no power to stop him now…
Space City, forth moon of the AlphaOmega System of the fourth quarters…
Robin glanced up at the glass door that slid open to allow the entrance of whoever was coming into his area. Raven and Cyborg had arrived…early but they had arrived. Starfire came floating out of her room and took her seat next to Robin, gently taking his hand as the door slid open again to reveal Beast Boy whose expression drifted between hope and hidden despair.
"They still haven't found her have they?" BB asked quietly after they were all seated.
Robin shook his head and Raven put a hand on BB's shoulder trying to reassure him as she did at all of these meetings.
The portal girl who had protected them had vanished without a trace after transporting them here in the Space City. A place that Slade couldn't trace them too...
"The commander reassures me they've done everything they could, but she doesn't come up in their systems or in any of their databanks. She's nameless and faceless to all of us Beast Boy…there was just no way we could expect to find her at all…"
Beast Boy stood up abruptly and turned away from all of them his trying to breathe without losing his temper.
"She…she saved us Robin…and we left her to die…she dropped the shield to push us through that portal…she sacrificed herself for us…people who didn't even know her name or what she looked like…"
Starfire who was tearing up again at the thought of a complete stranger dying because of them took a tissue from Cyborg and blew her nose again.
"They've done everything they can Beast Boy, Raven didn't have a chance to get a good trace on her…"
"She had a barrier around her essence; she didn't want to be traced…" Raven interrupted suddenly revealing something she hadn't earlier in the year. It had only just become clear to her why she had been unable to trace the girl.
The door suddenly slid open revealing the commander who waited till Robin nodded to him to enter the chamber's they'd been given.
"I do ask your pardon for the intrusion, but I'm afraid she said it couldn't wait…"
His gaze went behind him slightly to the figure at the door, a teenage girl cloaked in a dark cloak and hair like snow. Her eyes were slits as if she didn't dare look at them fully till upon them. Once she was closer her eyes opened farther and they all gasped, she had amber gold eyes like a wolf.
"I'll leave you all then…" The commander vanished out the door without another word.
"Pardon my intrusion, but I bring word that may revive you and return your city to freedom…"
Her name was Druid; she'd spent most of her life hunting down demons and criminals like Slade and had been to earth recently on a scout mission out of simple curiosity. She had heard of their plight through the channels she traveled and refused to name her source of information saying that her "birdies" deserved protection just as much as anyone else.
"What if they lied...?" Robin demanded unreasonably not realizing who he was speaking to and was furious with the fact she had not met any of their eyes or even looked directly at them.
"I am able to see truth in lies and decipher what is real and what is not…simply by meeting the eyes of those around me and reading their hearts…or their souls, which ever you prefer to think of it as."
Raven who had been reading Druid's essence and aura nodded seeing that there was the color of a truth seer among them. "She speaks true Robin, she's a Confessor…." Raven stared at the girl in slight shock, Confessors were as rare as they came and this girl was also a demon hunter which made her even rarer than most.
Beast Boy who up till now had been strangely silent left the area drawing a curious gaze from Druid who shrugged slightly and turned back to the map she had brought out.
Robin leaned over it and his eyes widened upon seeing what it was a map of. Slade's inner sanctum and of the other areas he had created since the takeover.
"How…?" He whispered barely able to get it out surprisingly.
Druid shrugged and turned away from them, her gaze going to the universe beyond the Space City outside that blast window. Raven was still taking in her aura, discovering just how powerful this warrior was and gasped before Druid answered.
"I have more than just simple Confessor skills Robin…I am far more…intricate…than most people realize…"
She paused and then pulled another thing out of her cloak and set it before them.
"I believe you will recognize some of these faces…"
She was right…there in the picture she'd placed on the table was Slade, the demon leader and another figure they hadn't realized was with Slade… Terra….
"It's recent enough, only a month old. I took it myself before I fled to find your team, I can't take them all myself, my skills are mainly towards demons not earth wielders or cruel men like Slade…"
She paused and then continued quietly, lowering her voice.
"She's not the Terra any of you used to know; Slade unearthed her and destroyed her mind beyond repair. The healers I had with me tried to resurface her from what he had done…both of them were killed while trying to heal the damage…"
Robin glanced up at her and noticed a thin scar on her face, on her jawline… a blade scar of some sort. Druid noticed his gaze and nodded.
"A creature similar to Slade faced me once, I managed to escape after ensuring he would not…it took all of my skills as a demon hunter to take him down since he was no demon. He had demons with him which was why I had been called in…someone else was supposed to take him out, but that person was killed and it was left to me…"
Raven placed a hand on Druid's shoulder and moved to place her hand on the scar, but Druid stiffly shrugged her off and moved away.
"No…our powers must never meet Raven…the result would mean our lives and possibly the lives of those around us as well…"
Raven pulled further back understanding suddenly why Druid's essence was so powerful but her body was so frail…no one could heal her wounds or ease her soul of the guilt she suffered…but what was the cause of the guilt?
Beast Boy came back into the room and nearly ran into Druid who turned and caught him before he could fall, and pulled him back to his feet before letting him go and stepping away from him.
"Druid…could you tell us if someone's alive by seeing them in our memories?" Beast Boy suddenly asked out of the blue startling them all.
Druid turned to him slowly letting her cloak fall and draped it over the back of the couch and then gave a slow nod.
"Most times yes, not always though…nothing is guaranteed."
Beast Boy sat in front of Druid later that evening, alone the other Titans having gone off to make arrangements for a transport to Earth.
"What was her name then?" Druid asked quietly breaking the silence that had surrounded them in the room.
"I don't know, she saved us though, and I just want to know if she made it or not…"
Druid nodded and stood up and took a seat on the coffee table, her body facing him and cupped his face with her hands, leaning her forehead against his….
'Reveal…'
After a few moments Druid slowly pulled away her eyes wide and her breath coming in gasps as if in shock. Beast Boy who had been warned about her eyes ignored the warning and looked into them and gasped as he felt himself enveloped by warmth and kindness behind those eyes.
It was as though he was reading her soul through her eyes as she was reading his.
He pulled away suddenly and waited for her to answer.
"Is she alive?"
Druid thought for what seemed like forever, trying to figure out how to explain this.
Then slowly shaking her head she spoke softly. "She's not traceable, I'm sorry…she had a tracer spell on her that prevents the life force from being known."
Beast Boy slowly stood up nodding his thanks to her and walked to the blast windows in silence.
"You know something about her though…"
Druid glanced up sharply unable to speak suddenly to rebut what he had just suggested.
Beast Boy turned back to her and met her amber eyes again, the warmth washing over him and a feeling of security washing over her in turn for some reason as well.
She pulled her eyes away from his and broke the contact, gasping for breath suddenly realizing she had stopped breathing when their eyes had met.
Beast Boy sat down in front of her suddenly startling her.
"Druid…Dru…you know something about her don't you?"
Druid glanced up slightly at the nickname that had made an appearance out of his lips and gave a small nod.
"I knew her a long time ago…haven't seen her in years though, she was supposed to be dead."
BB had accepted what Dru had told him, but he suspected it wasn't all she knew about the girl. He sensed though that the demon huntress had secrets of her own, and did not wish to pry into those secrets since it appeared she had spent years hiding them well.
Raven though for some reason kept glancing over at the strange huntress who was shouldering a pack she had brought with her to the station.
"She had guilt over something in her soul Rae…did you by chance get a read on it too?"
Raven glanced at BB in surprise and then gave a hesitant nod. "Yeah, I did. Whatever it was she's feeling guilt over seems to be consuming her….you met her eyes didn't you?"
BB nodded slightly and then spoke. "I felt like I was being enveloped by warmth and kindness, I was able to read her slightly…"
The look Raven was giving him worried him a little bit and Raven spoke up quietly.
"You felt warmth and kindness? That can't be right Beast Boy…Confessor's gazes are cold and lifeless which is why they are avoided at all costs…so legend says, and so have victims of the confessors as well mentioned that…"
"Victims…?" BB asked in alarm slightly not sure what to believe.
"Most people who meet the eyes of a Confessor end up being bound to a Confessor if she has them confessed. Most people who meet the eyes of a Confessor have said that the gaze is cold and lifeless and strikes fear…."
Raven quietly explained glancing back over at the Confessor/Demon huntress with suspicious interest.
"She's nice Rae…she let me read her some, maybe not on purpose but she let me read her some…"
Raven stared at him her eyes wide with slight alarm and then nodded.
"I trust you on that but you need to be careful meeting her eyes anyway BB. We know nothing but some legend stuff about her kind, so we don't know anything about it. Just be careful…"
Cyborg and Robin glanced at the demon huntress neither of them could believe was actually still alive despite the fact she looked so frail compared to them.
"Do you really think she's a demon hunter Robin…? She seems pretty…well…frail to me…"
Robin shrugged and watched Druid for a moment before he spoke.
"She must be stronger than she looks Cyborg if she's survived this long with all of those injuries she wouldn't let Raven heal…"
Cyborg looked at him suddenly and asked in surprise.
"How badly injured is she then…?"
Robin grimaced and then shifted his shoulders before answering, his eyes still on the frail looking warrior.
"Over half her body, most of it old wounds that were aggravated and re-injured on earth recently…"
Cyborg grimaced and glanced at the frail warrior who suddenly glanced up and looked at both of them.
Ignoring the warnings about reading her eyes and met them.
He gasped slightly at the warmth and kindness that suddenly enveloped him but it was tinted with something…understanding….
She removed her gaze by lowering her eyes and breaking the contact. Cyborg felt chills go down his spine at the essence of the understanding he had gotten from the eye contact…they had something in common…but he didn't know what…
Robin approached Druid while they were on the transport headed to earth, they would be arriving in a couple of weeks, enough time to train and be briefed on the demons, Slade and on Terra as well…
"How are you alive with those wounds?"
Druid glanced at him and kept her eyes lowered.
"My wounds are on of your concern Robin…care for your team; I'm none of your concern."
Robin bristled slightly and turned to go but then suddenly came back and practically yelled at her.
"You are my concern since it's your intellect that's getting us back our city!"
Robin had spun her around making her cloak fall back off her face which had been shadowed and now he looked into her amber eyes.
He was instantly enveloped in warmth and kindness and a hint of something else…pride….
She pulled away her eyes and broke the contact between them and turned away looking through the blast window as her cloak was returned to her head to shadow her eyes and face.
"Please don't do that Robin; you're not the only one who has suffered great loss in life…"
Starfire glanced into the room that the demon hunter was staying in on their journey to earth.
"If you wish to speak Princess then I suggest you enter and speak what is on your mind… I would prefer not to have to read it since that would be considered rude…"
Starfire stiffened slightly startled at the voice coming from the dark room. The lights dimmed on and she stared at the girl standing near the blast windows, her back to the princess.
"I am no longer a princess…please friend call me Starfire…"
Druid turned slightly, her hair falling in her face, shielding her eyes from the titan.
"I wish to know why you are helping us…we have never met you…"
Druid looked back out the windows and shrugged.
"I hunt demons, I cannot destroy the ones on earth till you all destroy or at least stop Slade and Terra since I can't take them all out myself…"
She paused and then added glancing at the alien teenager.
"I'm not doing it to help you or even to help earth…I have my own reasons for giving my assistance…"
Starfire stared at her tilting her head slightly and then asked.
"You were gravely injured getting that information to us…I thank you for this…"
Druid tensed slightly and then glanced back at Starfire who was suddenly in her face.
Warmth and kindness swept through Starfire who met the warrior's eyes, along with another thing a tidbit of information….Druid held a secret…but she was filled with mercy…..
Druid turned away and stepped away from the alien girl who stared at her.
"You…you favor…no you like…him…?"
Druid let a strange sound that sounded like a strangling noise and glanced back at Starfire who looked quite pleased with her discovery.
"You speak of it, and your Robin will have a reason to kill me in order to avenge you…understood?"
Starfire giggled not influenced by the veiled threat and floated to a seat and looked like she was getting ready for girl talk. Something Druid was not good at nor did she enjoy it…