To the fans of the my stories, I decided late to revise my stories, so I started with Present Darkness, with the feeling it will be better to revise now than later. I hope none are too mad about the long wait but I will post all chapters up to the present. As a last note, I won't, I repeat I won't write anymore chapters until I get at least some reviews.
Introduction: Sequel to Shadow of the Past. After almost being killed by a new enemy, the Titans are forced to face a new and far more destructive evil. Will they be able to stop the growing darkness or be consumed by it?
This story will be rated M for violence, language, and Death.
(To those you are reading this story without reading Shadow of the Past, I advise you to read that first or you'll miss out a lot of things. To the change from my first tale, Shadow will be called by his real name, Edgar. Like always, don't own the Titans or anything to do with them, but enjoy the story!)
CH1
The day was colder than usual. Even though winter had come to Jump City weeks before, it wasn't this cold. Raven felt that another storm was coming, when she thought of it, she held her cloak tighter as she made her way to the mall.
Raven would've flown or driven to the mall, but Cyborg was working on his car and the wind was blowing and she didn't want to freeze. When she made it to the front gate of the massive white bricked building that stood high in the sky where hundreds of citizens were entering and exiting. None of them paid any attention to the Titan. Everyone knew who she was; mostly they were used to her. To Jump City Raven and the other Titans was part of the city.
When the blast of warmth hit Raven's cold cheeks, Raven made her way to the book shop. After taking an elevator up to the third floor, she entered the department, where hundreds of books of all kinds of different subjects lay stacked on tall selves that reached the ceiling. In the corner, where an old beat up counter stood and where an old fashioned cash register. Behind the counter was a tall, old man with a balding head and wearing huge bugged eyed glasses.
When the old man looked to see who walked in, he immediately noticed it was Raven.
"Good day, Miss Raven." The old man said when Raven was coming to the counter. "Now what can I do for you today?"
"Good day, Earl." Raven said. "I am looking for a specific book about war."
"War? A young lady like you shouldn't read books about death and destruction." Earl the book store keeper said. "May I ask, why do you want to read a war book?"
"Its not for me, it's for my brother." Raven said. After a while, Raven felt comfortable about talking about her brother, Edgar better known as Shadow who she thought was dead for years, only to turn up alive.
Earl's eyebrow rose in amazement, he known Raven for a long time. But she never mentioned having a brother. "Is he a big fan of war novels?" he asked.
"He served in a war, and I thought it would be nice to give him a book about war here. Since he thinks we are a bunch of lazy people, I think it I should changed his perspective." Raven said.
"Well, I have a few actually. But there is one that is world renown." Earl said moving out from behind his counter and walked past Raven to a shelf in the far parts of the department. Raven had never been in this part of the store, she usually liked reading her old classic and gothic and fantasy books, never would she imagined going and buying a war novel, hell she never imagined seeing Shadow alive.
When Earl stopped, he reached for a book and pulled it out. "Here you go, miss. 'ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT' by Erich Maria Remarque. Tells of a German soldier in World War I." Earl handed the book to Raven where she studied the cover which depicted two soldiers where stuck in a trench surrounded by barbed wire where one solder knelt holding a wounded comrade.
They returned to the cash register, Earl went behind while Raven came forward. "How much Earl?" Raven asked putting the book on the counter while she pulled out her black wallet.
Earl raised his hand to stop Raven from getting further into her wallet. "Considered this a gift to your brother." Raven was amazed at the old book keeper. He rally does that for people; still Raven smiled at old man for his generosity.
"Thank you Earl, have a good day." Raven said when Earl placed the book in a sack and handed to her.
"Tell me how he liked it, alright?" Earl said waving Raven a goodbye while Raven turned to leave.
Raven was occupied placing the sack under her cloak when she ran into a guy. The sack fell the ground and Raven turned to the guy to say she was sorry, but she immediately felt the words choke up in her throat. The guy was tall, muscular with blonde hair and the bluest eyes Raven every saw. His face was that of a stone block, it shown a cruel sense.
"I am sorry." Raven managed to saw. The man just reached down for the sack and handed back to her. The man didn't say a thing, not even a nod that accepted it. But he just glared at her with those eyes, like an animal ready to kill. Raven then quickly moved away while the guy entered the book store.
Raven then made her across the mall, already forgetting that guy. She made her way into a clothing store. She entered the department far bigger than the book store where different verities of styles and color lined up every where she looked. Raven went over to the back of the store to see different kinds of leather jackets.
"May I help you?" a voice made Raven jump. She turned to see a lady dressed all in black with long dark hair covering parts of her pale skin.
"Yes, I'm looking for a leather coat where the length of it reached about to the ankle." Raven said, the lady nodded and turned to leave, where she entered a room behind the counter at the entrance.
The lady appeared and was holding a folded leather coat. "Here you go." She said and handed to Raven. "Anything else?"
"Do you have a few black, long sleeved buttoned up shirts with a collar." Raven said. The lady just swung around and led Raven to an area full of nothing but black everything. Without helping she pointed to where the clothing Raven described. Raven looked through to find the right size, when she did she pulled out two. "And black pants?"
The lady just pointed next to the shirt rack and there and behold pants. Raven again had to find two pairs of the same sizes. When she did, Raven grabbed them and went to the counter. The lady followed and checked out the clothing. Raven wasn't expecting anything kind offers from this lady than she did from Earl. In total, 109.82. Raven pulled out her credit card and handed to the lady. She swipe it while Raven typed in her code.
After a few more minutes, Raven got her clothing and her card and headed out the store. Raven was heading out the exit with her shopping done when she heard a few POP POP sounds. Raven thought nothing at first but then she heard screams and more POP sounds. Then to Raven's horror…gun shots! She then sat her sacks down and levitated and Raven flew up to where the sounds came from…
When Raven reached the third floor… She saw the same guy, the big muscular blonde who glared at here earlier running out the book store, carrying a pistol. Then Raven's heart stopped, without even thinking, she went into the book store without trying to stop the guy. There right there in the middle of the book store floor laid Earl the book store owner, laying in a pool of blood.
Raven gasped. She placed her hand over her mouth as she slowly went over to the body…Earl had a bullet wound in the chest. His once kind face showed nothing more than death. His glasses lay beside him with a "V" shaped boomerang of some sort with a letter attached to it. Soon Raven heard sirens outside and a pulsating of police officers. Raven stood near the body of the man who was kind to her earlier. Raven didn't cry, she couldn't…
At the tower, the Titans life wasn't so drastic. Everyone had there own thing to do. Robin was sitting at the couch talking with Hot Spot and Cyborg, while Jericho listened. Starfire was talking girl stuff with Argent and BlackFire, who decided to join the Titans earlier. Beast Boy was waiting on the other side of the couch for Raven to return from her shopping. He asked her if she would like him to go, but she said she'll be fine.
Terra wasn't in the same room as the others but she was in the room where Raven's twin brother Shadow (Edgar) lay unconscious. She was just checking on, seeing nothing was wrong, but at the same time admiring him. You see Terra had a crush on him, they once accidently kissed despite the fact Shadow was the enemy of the Titans before they knew who he was.
Shadow was barely alive after his encounter with the Eternals, a fanatic cult of villains who seek to purify the world through blood and iron. But he was getting better as the doctor told them. That he should be gaining conscious soon. That didn't make the Titans happy. Shadow hates the Titans. If he realized where he was and who was taking care of him, the Titans don't know what Shadow will do to them.
Terra left the room and headed towards the living room where all the Titans were. When she walked in everyone stopped whatever they were doing and took the time to see it was Terra, not Raven or Shadow (Thank goodness, the Titans thought.).
"How's Shadow?" Robin asked.
"Fine." Terra said while everyone turned to return to whatever they were doing before. Terra went over to Beast Boy to see what he is up to.
"Hey, Terra." Beast Boy said.
"How you feeling?" Terra asked. Despite they were ex-lovers, they still wanted a friendship base. Funny, Terra's ex-boyfriend is dating Raven, while Terra has a crush on Raven's brother, what a way to switch gears.
"Raven should been back by now." Beast Boy said. Ever since Raven was raped and tortured by the Eternals, Beast Boy couldn't stand being separate from her. Everybody knew he and Raven were in love, so they could understand what he felt when Raven went out alone. "It is not like her to keep us waiting like this." Us, to Beast Boy, It is not like her to keep me waiting like this.
"Don't worry, she went to the mall, what could possible happen at the mall?" Terra said. And right at that moment Raven walked in, carrying her sacks in one arm while carrying in the other a police evidence bag. By the look on Raven's face, pure shock, the Titans realized it wasn't good.
"Raven, what happened?" Beast Boy asked while he leaped from the couch and ran up to her. Right then Raven burst into tears on Beast Boy's shoulder.
"There was shooting in the mall." Raven said at last.
The Titans gasped, Terra felt very stupid right then. "Shooting? Were you hit?" Beast Boy asked looking over Raven to make sure for himself.
"No, but Earl the book store owner was. He is dead." Raven said. "And this was beside him." Raven handed the evidence bag to Beast Boy who handed it to Robin. "Read the letter." She said to him.
Robin opened the bag and gripped the corner of the letter so not to ruin the evidence. Robin read. "'To those who show kindness and generosity to the heathen Titans will suffer for it! Eternals'" Robin then reached in the bag and pulled out the imfamous "V" cresent of the Eternals with a sword in the middle that said, Totus hail ut victoria, vel cado ut mucro of cruor quod ferrum… All hail to victory or fall to the sword of blood and iron.
"What did he do?" Robin asked.
Raven recalled the story of the last time she say the book keeper alive, but when she got the part at the counter, "…he then gave me the book as a present. Then I ran into a tall blonde guy outside the store, he just glared at me as I left. When the shooting started, I saw him running away with a gun."
"Did you try to stop him?" Cyborg said.
"No," Raven answered bluntly.
"Why not?" Cyborg asked.
"When I realized who was shot, I was shocked. I failed to stop him, I failed a friend and I failed as a Titan." Raven said, she bowed her head in shame. Beast Boy hugged her, while the Titans realized that they probably would've done the same in her situation, so they didn't egged her about it.
Again the Titans were brought back to the horror of the Eternals, who were silent after all these weeks. Now they realized that no one was safe from the Eternals. No body…
(Again, my first chapters aren't as good. But tell me what you think...I still accept constructive criticism thanks for reading...Remember my warning!)
