9th Titan

Part 4

Trayce and I are training in my room– I just added an add-on room. I do a back-flip and land three feet away from Trayce. She comes at me, her katanas spinning like red blurs at the tips of her fingers. I raise my bo staff, bringing the hand grips across the tops of my knees, breaking it in two. Two identical silver razor blades– one in each hand– emerge. Trayce's eyebrows rise a half an inch.

"Didn't know a piece of wood could do that." she remarked as she tried to swipe at me.

"Wood coated steal." I reply. "The elementary weapon on my home planet."

"Exactly where is your home planet?" Trayce asks as we take a break.

"Saturn." I answer. "Saturn's People have to know three things: 1) how to wield a weapon. 2) to show no fear in the eyes of your opponent. 3)–"

CRASH! The side wall to my room breaks into a million pieces on the floor. As the dust clears, I see an outline of a man...a big man, with blazing red eyes and a black tunic. My father.

"Uh...hi dad." I stammer.

"This is your daddy dearest?" Trayce mumbles out of the corner of her mouth.

"Yes." I whisper. "He's the Monarch of Saturn, and I am the Monarch Heiress."

"Seems like a lot of pressure, why'd you leave?"

"Tradition. Children the age of 12 have to leave to live on Earth for a year, then spend a year at each planet. I didn't go with the others."

"I see you've had fun, Lucianna. Guess where the other children you left with are? Back home, that's where!" My dad comes and stands his full height, which isn't much bigger than your 5'9" frame.

"That's nice." I shrug off the comment like a dead leaf.

"That's NICE?!? I came down here to rage at you and all you can say is 'THAT'S NICE'?!?" My dad's face is contorted in rage. "I will have you know Lucianna, that you are coming home with me right now, or–"

"Or what?" Trayce steps in.

"Uh, Trayce..." I whisper.

"No, Lucianna, let your wide-mouth-frog-friend talk. Go ahead, Trayce." Monarch makes Trayce's name sound like the dirt he walked on last week.

"Hey, don't you have somewhere to be? Besides bugging around our Tower?" Trayce asks.

"Actually, no. I freed my day so I could come down here and fetch my daughter."

"Dad! Monarch Dimitri, I don't WANT to go back to Saturn!" I yell at him, stepping between him and Trayce.

"Thought you would say that." he said. "In that case, I will tear your precious Earth into space dust!"

"No!" you gasp. "No, Monarch, don't do that!"

"COME HOME!"

"FIGHT ME!" I scream in his face.

"Fight! You? You can barely lift that bo staff of yours!" he laughs mokingly.

I spin your blades together, my bo staff rejoins. "Can't hold it, huh, DAD."

"Yes, you can't hold it. An infant could do better." he sneers.

I smirk. Trayce, seeing that look I get when I want to win so badly I'd do anything to get it, steps between father and daughter.

"Guys, now let us be human beings, here. You two apparently have a feud here...SO WHY DON'T YOU TAKE IT TO ANOTHER FUCKING PLANET!?!"

"I accept your challenge, Heiress. I win, you come and succeed the throne immediately. You win, I go home empty handed, and you lose your title as Heiress Just plain Luna." Monarch looks me in the eye.

"Agreed." I return the stare.

Trayce looks between us, apparently accepting the anger.

Trayce POV:

Luna and her daddy dearest come to a truce: battle it out, loser goes back to Saturn. Trayce watches as each fighter takes his/her place on opposite sides of the roof. By then all the other Titans (East, South, ext) have come to watch.

"Thanks a load, Raven." Trayce mumbles as Luna and her dad turn to face each other.

"The rules are simple," Robin announces– he was briefed on this before–, "Fight till someone surrenders. Loser goes home."

Luna POV:

Monarch and I– I don't call him "daddy" anymore– face each other, he sneers, I curl my lip in reply. Robin blows a whistle, and the fight is on. I take your bo staff, and me and Monarch circle. He lunges, I move out of range, he closes in. I can see Beast Boy and Trayce out of the corner of my eye, each have a look of "Oh-God-this-will-end-in-bloody-ruins" on their faces. My eyes flick back to Monarch, he's closing in, blades raised.

He brought his blades? I think. Oh man, time to act.

He lunges again, this time I do a front flip into him, at the same time twisting my bo staff to emit the two silver razor blades.

Monarch sees this and twists away, keeping his eyes glued to me– my God what a creep!

"Time for action!" I take my chance and twist myself so he can't see me. I'm in another dimension parallel to the Human Plane. Me and Monarch lock gazes– he can see tiny slivers of me there-and I circle him as fast as I can. He lunges, I twist away, he leaves a small but deep wound in my right calf. I swear under my breath. "Damn it!"

"Give up, Lucianna, you can't keep this up forever!" Monarch yells in my general direction.

"Not on your bloody life!" I shout as yI come into existence behind him.

All Monarchs of a certain planet had a ring around their neck. Each neck-ring was inlaid with a certain gem; Saturn had deep sea blue sapphires inlaid in gold. I find the latch and swipe it off of him.

Monarch twirls around to see me holding the neck-ring over my blue flaming hand. I look at him cooly: "Take one more step, and the title goes to Victor. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

Victor was Monarch's arch rival-as well as his half brother-, and would have never been king of Saturn unless something happened to me. Since I had no intention of going back to Saturn and taking the Throne, Victor was next in line to the Throne of Saturn. I saw Monarch's face strain to remain emotionless.

"Come on, Monarch, you know as well as I do you don't want that to happen. Victor on the throne of Saturn would make you the laughing stalk of the whole planet– not to mention across the galaxies. Though I might be willing to spare the Symbol of the Monarch"– that was what the neck-ring was called– "in exchange for something."

"What?" Monarch asked, his face straining.

"Disownment." I reply. "I want nothing to do with you or the planet anymore."

Monarch holds up his hands in defeat. "You---you win, Luna."

Part 5

"C'mon guys, what's the surprise?" I resist the urge to pull the blindfold from my face.

It is June 9, 2008. The Titans want to throw me a birthday bash, but I don't know they know I know. I'm blindfolded and being pushed toward what smells like a birthday cake that's gone and gotten itself burnt– but not badly.

"Guys! This isn't–"

"Surprise!" They chorus.

My blindfold is taken off and I see the Main Room decked out in outer space stuff. From balloons to the birthday cake, everything is outer space themed.

"Guys, what–" I begin.

"Happy Birthday, Luna! We thought we'd throw you a party." Beast Boy smiles

"You shouldn't have–"

"We know." Robin says.

"No, you really shouldn't have. I am really stocked about what you guys are trying to do here, really, but I can't celebrate. Not this party, not this year."

"Why not?" Starfire asks.

"Today is June 9, right?"

"Yes," Raven says.

"The reason I am the 9th Titan, the reason I call myself that instead of the 8th, is because of two things. One, 9 is my lucky number. Two: I was supposed to be 9th in line to the Saturn throne. Now I am going to be the Monarch when the last Heir dies. My father may have disowned me, but my blood secures my duty– when the last Heir dies."

I say the last part to myself, then turned on my heel and run to my room. I throw myself down on my bed, and stare up at the ceiling. Cyborg comes in a few minutes later.

"It's like Raven's birthday all over again." he sits on the end of my bed.

"What happened?" I ask.

"It was Raven's day, we threw her a party, she didn't like it. Slade came back and tried to take her, Robin tried to stop it. Nowadays we see Raven staring at her hands, they look red when we see them, but always a fading red. She agreed to party after all of it was over."

"That sounds interesting." I say.

"If being frozen in time sounds interesting to you, then yes, very. Robin and Raven were the major people in the battle with Slade. Robin tried to defend Raven against Slade. I feel Slade has gotten stronger, and that he's working with someone."

"Anyone stronger than Slade?"

"Human, no. But someone from Azarath---Raven's father."

"What?" I cock an eyebrow.

"Beat Boy and I got sucked into Raven's mirror, and raven had to go in after us. Her dad was there, and they had to battle it out. My sensors still have his battle strength."

Cyborg checks his scanners.

"Booya! He is stronger than Slade! We're onto something!" Cyborg punches the air with a fist.

"All right!" I laugh, hugging Cyborg. then, feeling odd, let go and blush.

"Listen, Luna, I..."

Robin comes in and interrupts.

"Luna, Cyborg, it's Slade, let's go."

"I thought Slade was dead?" I inquire.

"He may be, but his copycat isn't.

Myself and the Titans arrive at an old wherehouse off the water coast. It's close to the Tower...too close.

I whisper, "It's too close to the Tower."

"He must be up to something." Robin braced himself.

"He couldn't be trying to sink it again, would he?" Beast Boy looks a bit scared.

"Maybe, now that we don't have Terra..."

"But you have me, and Trayce. What wrong with that?" I butt in.

Raven sighs, "Nothing's wrong with that. The copycat Slade doesn't know you exist, or if he does, he doesn't let it effect his plans."

Cyborg thinks a moment. "Maybe he's building a generater?"

Robin cuts them off. "Enough "maybe"s, let's go."

We all go into the wherehouse and split into twos: Trayce and me, Robin and Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg, and Raven is lookout. I hear Raven grumble outside.

"Powers of a telepath and I'm lookout, hrmph!"

I smile and turn to Trayce, she motions for me to be silent and moves forward. I follow, and see the copycat Slade inside one of the dark rooms off to the right.

"What's he doing..." Trayce wonders.

Slade doesn't turn around, but his statement is aimed in your's and Trayce's direction.

"So nice for you two to come." He presses a red button, and I hear the other Titans scream. "The others will join us momentarily, even the lookout."

I realize there's no point in hiding, and step into the light. "What do you want?"

"The Titans downfall, and you."

"Me? What on Earth would you want with me? I thought it was Trayce the bad boys were after."

"You have an unlimited supply of power; other powers you haven't even opened yet."

I count my powers out on my fingers. "I can change the weather depending on my mood, I can set aflame anything I think of, I can...well that's about it."

He laughs, evilly. "You have more power than you realize. Tremendous power, all inside you. I can help you unleash and control it."

I pretend to think about it. "Hmmm, no, I like surprises." I bring out my bo staff, and stand in a fighting stance.

"Ahh, suit yourself." he sighs.

Slade leaps at me, pressing a blue button as he did so, I jump clear of his range and aim a blow at his head; I miss. The other Titans(minus Trayce and Raven...so far) are running from something headed my way. They skid into the space between boxes and dark room door, and are immediately surrounded by a black forcefeild...it is not Raven's.

"The others have joined us, and now the point of no return is upon us."

"Let them go, you psycotic bastard." I say through clenched teeth.

"Now now, no profanity before you die, it's a sin you know."

"I don't care if it's a curse to singe my hair off, LET THEM GO!"

He looks at the Titans, then at me. "You really are being quite silly about all this, Heiress."

"I am no longer the Heir to the Saturn Throne. I forced my father to disown me, do not pressure me to kill you."

You can feel a power welling up inside you, a dark, endless power...

"You are the Heiress, it was what you were born to be, it is what you will die being." He says simply.

I scream, "I am so sick and tired of people telling me about my God forsaken destiny, so sick of all the "It's who you are." crapola. I want to be left alone!"

A blinding midnight blue light erupts around me, and the Slade copycat is knocked off his feet as I blast a flame at him.

"My name is Luna, I am a Teen Titan. THAT IS WHO I AM!" I yell at him, pissed off.

Slade is pinned to the wall by my power, but before I can kill him, he disappears in a swirling flame. Then both he and the red flame are gone.

I fall to the ground, my hand hitting the blue button, releasing the Titans. I fall into an unconscious sleep.

Waking up to a shouted flurry of voices, I sit up and rub my head. I'm back at the Tower, in the Infirmary Room, what a surprise. Robin walks over and sits down next to me. Putting his hand on my shoulder. He asks me:

"What happened in there?"

"I don't know. Slade made me as mad as hell, and then I was blasting blue flames at him. Then I passed out. How long have I been out of it?"

"Nine days."

I mumble. "Figures."

"What?"

I explain: "I was the ninth for everything. Ninth kid, Nine Day Vision Watch, you name it. Now I was asleep for nine days. See, this is why I am not the 7th or 8th, but the 9th Titan. Nine has always been MY number."

"Well, isn't that a good thing?"

"I guess so..." I sigh. "Robin, I want to leave the Titans.

Now everyone in the room is staring at me.

"Why?" Starfire asks.

I shake my head. "I put you guys in too much danger."

"At least let us patch you up." Cyborg offers.

"You mean–"

Robin nods. "Yeah, you can leave. But remember that we'll always be here if you want to come back."

The Titans patch up my arm– which has gotten a major gash in it– and I go. You look into your old room, but it isn't there.

"Where–?"

"I put everything back in your apartment. I had a feeling you might say what you did. Are you sure you want to leave?"

"Yeah. I put you guys at risk, I'll come back when I know I won't."

"I'll miss you..." Cyborg reaches out to touch my cheek.

We two look into each other's eyes– or eye in Cyborg's case. I turn away and walk out of the Tower. I can feel the others watching as I spread my midnight blue hawk wings and fly back to the city.