Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Teen Titians. Marjani is mine though. And please, this is my first Teen Titians fanfiction so if there are any details I left out, let me know.
They received a letter.
Not as in an e-mail, not as in a fax, it was a completely ordinary paper-in-envelope letter. But it wasn't the ordinariness of the kind of message that had been sent, but what kind of shape it was in. And, of course, the message it held.
It had gone through so many detection devices that if it had been a human person, they would have been thoroughly violated, and a lawsuit would have been filed. However, it merely became slightly more crumpled than before; not that you could tell. The envelop itself was stained yellow as if it had been several years before the message had been delivered. It was blackened by what could only have been smoke since the entire package was intact. It was all forms of creased, crumpled, wrinkled, and basically worn right through. The address to the receiver was smudged and barely legible, but there was no clue from where it came. It was anonymous.
The message was even more unusual and strange than that they had ever gotten. It gave the coordinates to an island, seemingly uncharted and it contained one word.
Help.
Of course, they investigated, and found that it was, in fact, a tropical island several hundred miles away. How the letter had eventually ended up in their hands, one could only guess. But it had, and the city they left behind was a safe one for now. They could never resist the face of danger nor the challenges it issued from its silken mouth. They went as fast as the jet could take them in the hopes that whoever had sent it was still in need of them. Or to at least discover the location of whatever was left of the sender.
As soon as they arrived, they found it to be no more than just a lump of land ten miles around. It was a wonder that it had not been washed quickly away by the waves of the salty ocean. The island was indeed as tropical as islands could be; palm trees galore and the most beautiful sandy beach of soft white sand. And at its center there was an enormous forest. In fact, that's all the island was; a giant tropical forest. The trees were large and fat, their braches stretching into the branches of other trees until it seemed that there was a leafy roof above you. The beat down mercilessly; heat, humidity, and tempers were running high because so far, they had discovered nothing.
'This is no help at all!" Robin yelled in frustration as he violently threw down the ancient paper into the muddy water. An old librarian had found a map which, he said, could lead them anywhere on the island. Or so it was rumored. No one had ever been there as far as he knew. The paper sank to the shallow bottom of the salty creek, swallowing it up like a hungry animal.
"Cyborg, couldn't you get us some real directions?" Several beads of sweat ran down the young teenage boy's face as he addressed the half-human half-machine standing next to him. He wiped the sweat away hastily and took a deep breath of the hot, heavy air. Cyborg pulled out a high-tech looking GPS monitor from…somewhere and began to press several buttons on his arm.
"Okay, okay." He muttered quickly before Robin got even more irritated. A small satellite dish appeared and began to revolve around in short circles, searching for some kind of signal with several strange clicking noises. Robin watched it for a few seconds before another sound met his ears. It gained his attention quickly as it turned out to be Beast Boy. Now a large green elephant, he was rolling around on the muddy banks of the creek loudly and robustly. A girl, her purple outfit contrasting starkly to the green and brown background, was giggling behind her hand. Robin spared her one short glance that silenced her immediately before he was directed back to Beast Boy. A small growl escaped his throat and, amazingly, Beast Boy heard him. He swiftly changed back into his usual green self, except that he was now covered in thick, sandy mud. His uniform was soaked through and several droplets of water sprayed in various directions as he shook his head. Raising his hands in the air, he shrugged.
"What?" He asked innocently. Robin was fuming and ground his teeth.
"This was supposed to be a surprise mission!" He hissed venomously, emphasizing the last two words. He clenched his fists and tried to take another deep breath. Beast Boy glanced at Starfire and raised his eyebrows. Raven, shifting uneasily in her blue cloak, stared with a haughty look on her face. The heat was making her irritable but she was reluctant to remove her outer covering. It made her uncomfortable.
"Robin, I don't think anyone is here." She said stiffly. Beast Boy nodded his head vigorously in agreement.
"Yeah, there's no one here and we've been looking for hours!" He exclaimed waving his arms around wildly. Robin's nails were digging painfully into his skin even through his thin black gloves and he turned to face Cyborg once more as a beep issued from behind him.
"I can't get a signal." Cyborg muttered while averting his eyes. He stared fixedly at the ground as Robin gave each one of them a long look.
"Robin? I do not think there is a person here." Starfire said timidly, touching him gently on the shoulder. Robin visibly relaxed and dejectedly shook his head.
"I guess there really isn't anything here." He said.
A twig snapped loudly and on the other side of the creek there appeared a girl dressed in shabby and dirt-stained clothes. Immediately, everyone went into a fighting stance though the girl made no other movements. Robin, tightly clutching his retractable pole, watched her warily with his masked eyes. The girl was staring at him with equal intensity, though hers were a tad unusual; one eye was green while the other was blue. She gripped a long branch of bamboo, a plant extremely abundant on the island. Her pants were ripped at the knee and looked as if they had once been white. Her shirt, also ripped and worn through in several places was a light brown color, matching her pants. Her hair was interesting was well; brown with green and blue streaks. It hung in a waterfall of mess around her shoulders, loose, free, and thick.
They all stood there, perfectly still, for several moments. Then the girl dropped the light pole and held up her hands in a sigh of peace. Robin nodded and slipped his own weapon back into its place, though he was now painfully aware of his surroundings. The others, taking the cue from their leader, relaxed slightly. It was Beast Boy who spoke first.
"So, do you think she's safe?" His whisper was heard by everyone, including the strange girl.
"Perfectly safe." The girl replied. Her voice was hoarse, as if she hadn't used it in a long time. Beast Boy jumped out of the water and hid behind Starfire. The girl smiled slightly.
"Who are you?" Robin questioned curiously as he took several steps forward to the very edge of the water. The girl nodded as if she had been expecting this.
"Marjani." She answered shortly. Robin raised an eyebrow and then crossed his arms.
"Will you trust me? I have something to show you." She asked suddenly.
"I don't know if I can." Robin answered truthfully. There was a period of silence in which the girl seemed to be thinking something over. Eventually, she picked up her bamboo pole than tossed it over to Robin. He deftly caught it, though a little surprised. One hand went to her waist and everyone visibly tensed up. She drew out what looked like a sharpened rock. It looked lethal enough, so Robin prepared himself to fight. However, before anyone could make a sound of surprise, she slashed her palm. Several drops of blood spattered onto the ground as she watched impassively. Dropping the sharp stone into the river, she clenched her hand into a fist and let the blood fall.
"I swear on my blood that no harm will come to any one of you." Her mouth twitched. "Unless it is inflicted by yourselves."
"Wha-" Robin's mouth opened and even Raven's brow furrowed at the sight of the strange savage-like girl now wrapping her bleeding hand up in a torn strip of her shirt. Her eyes then returned to the five teens now staring at her in shock.
"Will you trust me?"
It took only little over an hour to even begin to see signs of life, or rather, lack of it. The girl, Marjani, was strangely quiet as she led them expertly though the thick tangle of the underbrush of the forest. They were out of breath, even Robin, when they came to a small clearing. Panting slightly, they all stopped next to Marjani whose eyes watched, unmoving, a still object not far away.
A large machine lay crumpled and partly burned off to the right of the space before them. The group also stared curiously at it; like some hellish creature that had crawled miserably out of the ground. Some plants had begun to make their way into the hull of twisted metal. Broken glass littered the ground in what must have been the front, glittering in the sunlight.
"What was this?" Robin asked slowly, his eyes moving quickly around in search of anything more. Marjani focused her gaze on Robin's face, her green and blue eyes bright.
"Our first escape attempt." Her voice was low and the others had to lean in to hear what she was saying. "Lee and Yuu tried to escape using one of the spare helicopters. They were unsuccessful. The machine eventually rejected their DNA and crashed. We could see the smoke from the station. When…they arrived, Lee was still alive." She was oddly devoid of emotion.
"They killed him anyway." Robin's eyes narrowed and he glared at the warped mass of machinery lying immobile on the ground.
"Who did this?" Robin asked quietly, almost afraid of hearing her voice again; she had shown no emotion, but her last remark had been nearly tearful. She looked back down at the machine and hung her head.
"We never knew." She whispered.
They soon came to a large building of steel and glass. Several of the windows were broken and inside they could catch glimpses of the enormous rooms full of computers, scientific labs, and what Marjani called "testing grounds". She showed them into a main room, enormously large on any scale, and pointed them in the direction of the star attraction.
"The main computer." She said, almost reverently. Cyborg gaped at the massive structure before him, almost giddy with excitement. It was even more enormous than the one they hosted at their headquarters. He immediately went up to it and began typing commands on the keyboard. The others began to explore the large room and found several boxes piled untidily up against the walls. Examining the closest of these, they found them to be full of strange electrical appliances, tangled wires, and even smaller boxes. Raven picked one up and read it aloud.
"Turkey and diced potatoes." She said in a strange voice. "And with gravy, what a bonus." Turning it over in her hands, she picked through several others like it while Starfire and Beast Boy were making a racket as they looked through the other boxes. Marjani watched them with a slight smile on her face, but her attention was called back to the monitor as it suddenly flickered to life. Robin leaned in expectantly, but only a blue screen came up, empty save for one word and the cursor blinking rapidly next to it.
"What's the password?" Beast Boy asked, one hand scratching his green hair, his head turned in Marjani's direction. She continued to stare at the screen, as if entranced, until Starfire placed a hand gently on her shoulder. She was immediately brought out of her reverie.
"Something is wrong?" Asked the green-eyed alien worriedly, but Marjani merely shook her head.
"I don't know." She replied.