Benevolent Evil
He hid in the shadows, an outcast on both planes that he knew though for different reasons. He had had his name stripped of him, his rank, his home, everything and all because he had refused. He had been branded the Yamamoto; a name closer to a curse, the guardian, and for a Tanar'ri guard duty was a shameful duty.
He stood on top of rooftop watching over the city. He hid in the darkness with ease; he had been hiding in plain sight for almost 2 centuries. He was looking for someone. He knew of something that few else did and he would not let that plan or knowledge come into the light if he could help it. He was searching for someone, someone in the city. He would protect a protector if only he could find the target.
In the Teen Titan tower the super teens were doing what any kids would be doing a Friday night, kicking back and relaxing with a movie. Or trying to watch a movie. In actuality the group was split as always over what to watch. Comedy was Beast Boy's vote, action for the man of steel of the group, horror for the ever-dreary Raven. Starfire didn't mind and Robin just wanted the chaos to stop.
"ACTION!" Cyborg yelled.
"Hey you got to pick last time. I say we watch a COMEDY!" BB yelled back at Cyborg.
Raven watched the two arguing for a few more moments before deciding to retreat to the sanctuary of her room. Robin left the scene with his hands over his ears and headed off to the command center. Starfire, having nothing better to do followed the masked boy.
Raven heard the hiss of her door closing and silence filled the air. "Finally, quiet. I can actually hear myself think. But what to do now?" Raven asked herself in her normal soft monotone. She surveyed her room for possible options. Her room was sparse and had little in the way of decorations. Almost everything ranging from her clothing to her bed sheets were a deep purple or black. She could meditate, try and contract other planes, or go back outside and see if the two babies had stopped arguing.
Raven thought for a minute before turning down all three ideas. She had already done her meditating for the day and she had already tried to contact the dead. Plus Raven knew from experience that the two eggheads would settle the dispute their way; an all night videogame marathon with the winner being the guy that had won the most games by the time one of them had fallen asleep. The only thing that could stop this mad contest would be work but thing had been very quiet as of late and it looked like the boys would be there all night.
Knowing that the prospects of a movie were now nil Raven decided she just wanted to relax with a bath. With that in mind Raven took out her PJ's and went into her bathroom. Before joining the team her own room and bathroom had been on her list of demands and she had gotten them. Robin had had the foresight to see that Raven would be a good member for the new Teen Titans he had been putting together.
Raven slipped out of black outfit and ran the bathwater. While the bathtub filled with warm water Raven contemplated for the longest time whether or not to add bubbles. "But it's so… girly." Raven told herself. 'But who will see you?' a small voice in the back of her head told her. In the end the bubbles were added and Raven settled herself into her bath.
Starfire followed Robin into the control center but stayed by the door to watch him work. Starfire had always admired how hard Robin would work for the team and at times she would feel guilty about exactly how much he did. It was he how ran all the major scanning for new criminal activities, he handled the public relations for the most part and he handled all of the money issues as well. Plus he took care of everyone with out them knowing it on top of his duties as just a Teen Titan fighting crime.
Starfire watched as Robin scanned all sorts of medias for any news of major events that would concern the Titans. Robin was so wrapped into his work that he didn't hear Starfire walk up behind him but he did look up quickly when Starfire placed her left hand on his right shoulder.
Starfire was startled by his quick look. The look was so focused and alert and Starfire didn't really know had had compelled her to touch Robin. She hadn't meant to disturb him. "Sorry." Starfire said as she began to move her hand back to her side.
Robin caught her hand with his own hand and placed it back on his shoulder. "It's ok. I just wasn't expecting company." Robin told Starfire in a softer voice then he normally spoke with. Starfire blushed a little and looked up at the giant projected screen in front of her. Robin smiled to himself and gave her hand an encouraging squeeze before getting back to work.
Silence came between the two superheroes so that the only clicking of the keyboard could be heard.
"Robin?"
"Yeah Star?"
"It's a custom here for people to mate for life, right?" Starfire asked looking down at the boy wonder.
'Wow, what a thing to ask. How to explain marriage?' The boy wonder didn't look up at Starfire but kept his focus on the scrolling pages of text on the screen in front of him. "Well, yes except we call that marriage. We have ceremony when a man and woman love each other and promise to be together forever. So you have something similar on your planet, Star?"
"Sort of. Our customs allows a people to have many mates if they want. We do have marriages as well but they are only for the rich who can afford them." Starfire told Robin in a sad tone.
"I see." Robin said thoughtfully. He wanted to ask about why Star was asking the question but sad tone made him hesitant. In most things he would leap into action but with Starfire there were times when he had no clue of how to handle the situation.
"I… I'm from a lower class family and the only way I could ever have a marriage would be if I married into a rich family but most of the upper class already have several mates by the time they are our age. The reason… I … brought it up was… because I saw pictures of a wedding the other day in a magazine. And I thought… how… wonderful it would be… to be the woman getting married." Starfire choked up on her last few sentences and by the end she was crying softly, something that Robin or any other member of the team rarely ever saw. Starfire was always so up beat about things and to see her like this was very unnerving.
Robin got up out of his chair and took Starfire into his arms allowing her to cry on his shoulder while he stroked her long red hair and embraced her. "Shhh… It's ok Star. I'm sure you'll find someone to love you and marry you. Any guy would be so lucky to be married to you." Robin consoled the weeping alien.
Starfire didn't say anything but just let Robin slowly sway her in his arms. She felt so safe there and didn't want to leave Robin's embrace. After a while Starfire stopped crying and just held Robin close to her. "Thanks Robin. I… don't know what came over me." Starfire said reluctantly stepping out of Robin's embrace. Robin was reluctant to let her go as well and he held onto her hands.
"Hey, what are friends for?" Robin told Starfire though he regretted it immediately afterwards for he caught the flash of hurt in her bright eyes.
An awkward moment came between them and once again Robin was at a loss. Fortunately the alarm went off; the computer had picked up a disturbance downtown. Both the teens looked at the computer screen with some disappointment and relief. The moment was over but both knew that it would come up again some time soon.
"I'd better get the two guys." Robin said disengaging himself from Starfire.
"Yeah." Starfire said with a weak smile.
Raven was enjoying her bubble bath. It was doing exactly what she wanted it to do. Relax her. Raven had been having some difficulty controlling her powers, more difficulty then normal anyway though she hadn't let any of the group know. Nor would she tell the group because she remembered what happened with Terra. It may have been a big miss understanding but it had caused some serious divides in the group at the time.
It wasn't that she was having difficulties but she had also been getting strange psychic messages during her meditations. It didn't matter when she meditated, Raven always got the same message; "In order to find dark princess, you must kill the black bird."
The message frustrated Raven and she had spent a lot of time wondering why she was receiving the same message again and again. It seemed to be a coded message but the gravity of it fascinated Raven. Death was always something she had looked into though Raven was unsure if she would have the stomach to wield death. So far she had only hurt people badly but never enough to be considered life threatening. A little known fact was that blood made Raven feel ill but no one knew that. No one knew much about Raven and she liked to keep things that way.
The truth be known, Raven didn't know that much about herself. Part of the reason she meditated, a part from keeping her powers in check, was to try and find out who she was. Raven had read in a book that meditating could unlock memories that were buried for some reason or another. And her meditations had proved useful. They had given her the clues to finding this old book but the book was written in a strange language and her efforts to decipher the unusual tome had been fruitless. The book now lived at the bottom of her underwear drawer. Raven figured that on the odd chance someone came into her room they wouldn't look in there or would close the drawer right away and thus the book was safe.
On occasion Raven would gleam more useful information from her meditations. She had found out that her mother had been Japanese though Raven couldn't recall ever speaking Japanese or ever living in Japan. As far as she knew English was her first and only language. She also knew that her mother had abandoned her when she was 5 for some unknown reason. This dark secret was part of the reason Raven didn't trust other people very easily. Raven figured that mothers were the one type of person that would never abandon their children and yet it had happened to her.
"But why?" Raven asked herself. She was frustrated with her lack of knowledge and it annoyed her to no end. Was she a bad child? Had she developed her powers at a young age and had freaked her mother out? Raven didn't know nor did she have the faintest clue.
Raven hit the waters' surface with her small fist out of anger. "Why?" Raven asked herself again. Just then the alarm went off.
"Great. With the way things have been this is just a burglary or something small." Raven muttered under her breathe to herself as she got out of the tub. Raven dried herself off and slowly put on her outfit once more. She wasn't in a big hurry, she could always find the team with her powers and with any luck all the action would be over and she could go to bed.
"Where we headed?" Cyborg asked Robin as the team ran/ flew over rooftops.
"There was a major disturbance at a pizza place on 5th and Main. Some big guy throwing his weight around and destroying things right and left." Robin replied.
"Look! Up ahead." Starfire called out.
A few blocks away a large fire was burning and the sounds of twisting metal could be heard. When the team got to the scene they met flames, a few totaled cars, several burning stores and lots of smashed glass.
"Wooow, it's like a bomb went off." Beast boy said informing the group of the obvious.
"But a bomb doesn't leave giant fist prints in walls." Raven said as she floated down beside Beast boy. "See." Raven pointed out several chunks of dry wall and sidewalk that looked like they had been punched or kicked in.
"Whatever it is, we have to find it and stop it. Alright team, spread out and search." Robin ordered.
The team started to split up but the search ended quickly for out of the flames came a flying car that struck the ground not far from where the Titans had been standing.
"Dude! That pitch sucked man! You weren't even close!" BB taunted the unknown car thrower.
However his good humor was cut short when a large figure came out of the fire. That in it self was unnerving. The fact that is easily stood 7 feet tall, had giant wings, had sharp claws, glowing red eyes, long horns and its entire dark red body seemed to be made up entirely of muscle.
The entire team stood still for a moment just staring at the thing. They had all seen many strange things before but this was by far the weirdest thing ever. Robin was the first to come out of his shock.
"Either you surrender peaceably or we'll be forced to take you in by force." Robin yelled at the red giant.
The creature turned its head to Robin and laughed a deep rumbling laugh that made him shake. "You have no idea who you are dealing with human. Even after centuries of time you still believe you are a match for the spawn of the Abyss?"
"The Teen Titans are always ready to take anyone on." Robin replied taking a combat ready position and motioning the beast to come at him.
The red giant laughed again. "Very well, die young. I will enjoy this fight… and its spoils." The creature said licking its lips as its eyes traveled to Starfire and then to Raven.
"HOLD! These humans speak not of what they know." A voice called from the flames. To the left of the Titans a cloaked figure emerged from the fire. The Teens tightened up their defensive perimeter so that they could repel an attack from the left, where the red behemoth was, and the right, where the new comer stood.
"Leave children." The figure addressed the Titans.
"Hey! We're not kids!" Beast boy yelled at the figure before transforming into an alligator and snapping his jaws angrily.
"I can not grantee your safety."
"We can take care of ourselves. We don't need babysitters." Cyborg yelled back.
The red mass of muscle grunted in amusement. "You look to have some skill about you. You will prove to be an interesting opponent."
"You shall die here if you do not leave." The cloaked person remarked.
The cloaked figure removed his cloak to reveal himself to be no more then a short lean boy. He stood about 5'6, though his cloak had given the illusion that he was taller and broader then he was. He wore no shirt and it was plain to all that he was very fit and had many scars ranging from massive gashes to small cuts all over his chest and arms. He wore just a pair of blue jeans.
The big winged beast laughed. "Do you know what you are facing human?"
"Do you know what you are facing Demon?"
Raven inched closer to Robin while the Demon and the boy were exchanging words. "Something doesn't feel right. Both of them are emitting strange energies." Raven said trying to keep her voice in its normal dry monotone. "And I think that red guy is a Baalor, a particularly strong type of Demon immune to just about everything."
"Great. How do we beat a guy with no weaknesses?" Beast boy asked scratching his head.
"Everything has a weak point. We just have to find it." Robin told the group.
"And if we can't find one?" Cyborg asked as he armed his sonic cannon.
"We make one." Robin replied with a sly grin.
The boy flew at the Baalor and stuck him in the left side of the head with a roundhouse kick followed by several kicks to the Demon's ribs. The move surprised the Titans and the Demon alike as he reeled back from the punches and kicks that the boy was delivering with amazing speed. A well-timed leg sweep sent the giant to the ground accompanied with the loud cracking of concrete.
The boy didn't stop for a heartbeat and continued his attack by hammering both his fists into the horny head of the Demon.
"Do we assist him?" Starfire whispered right into Robin's ear.
"Let's see how this goes." Robin replied turned to face Starfire and to him the world stopped turning. He was staring into her bright green orbs and he was sure there was no sight more beautiful then the one he was looking at. Starfire returned his stare by looking at him straight in the eye as well.
A loud yell of pain followed by the sickening sound of a body being smashed into concrete. The Demon had recovered and retaliated by backhanding the boy that had sent him flying into the remnants of the pizza house.
"Now we help."