Author's Notes: Complete rewrite, posted 4/17/11. Will change later chapters to match new events. If you notice anything that you feel needs a rewrite, please point it out to me so that I may correct it in future rewrites/editing.

—Chapter Two: The Overwhelmed Empath—

"Prince Okin's treaty is fair, your highness, and I sense no deceit in him. We should move ahead with the alliance as soon as possible," said a young man with pitch black hair and eyes. He was dressed in the completely black slacks and top usually associated with members of traveling clans, but wore the brilliant blue sash that marked him as a highly ranked official in the kingdom of Jarked.

King Jerome of Jarked, a large, cheerful looking man, with orange-red hair and beard, leaned back on his throne, appraising his chief advisor.

"I trust your senses, Counselor Reville, but I believed I had made it clear that I no longer desired a marriage alliance with Reduke."

Reville stood up taller, his face determined. "Politically, King Jerome, we cannot pass this up. It will allow Jarked to present a united front against Marmak. King Kajor's threats have been escalating to the point we can no longer ignore them. The man may very well try to incite war, and you refuse to meet with him for peace talks."

"That wicked man only wants one thing, Reville. And you know as well as I what that thing is. You. The empath that got away."

Reville flinched, but bowed his head. "I would be most willing…"

"Absolutely not. You are the chief advisor in my court, my most valued counselor."

"Then, your highness, we must accept the alliance with Reduke."

"No."

The young man glared at the large king, exasperation clear on his face. "Why?" he demanded, dropping the appropriate courtesies in a simple act of rebellion against the stubborn king.

"Because you hate Reduke."

Reville frowned and rubbed his forehead with a hand, allowing his irritation to show. It did not help at all that Jerome was absolutely confident and completely at ease, despite the urgency of the situation.

"Reduke was my home kingdom, and King Ralt had every right to do as he did to me. As I no longer live there, it is no longer an issue. As your chief advisor, I fully support this alliance."

"Well, what if I said the matter was personal?"

"Personal feelings have no place in a royal court." The young empath glared at his king. "There is no reason Princess Shara should refuse to marry Prince Okin. He is a strong ruler and an intelligent man. He is honest and forthright, and will only do what he believes best for his people. He is also only four years older than the princess, as well as known to be quite attractive. There is no valid reason to refuse this."

"Shara is in love with you."

Reville's posture stiffened.

"And I know you're in love with her. Just marry the poor girl anyway, would you? You would make an excellent king."

Reville glared. "Absolutely not, and I know Shara is hiding behind your throne listening to this entire conversation. Did you really think you could hide someone from my senses?"

A beautiful, red-haired teenage girl came out from behind the throne, her face, and the emotions flowing off her, full of distress.

"Why, Reville? Father approves of us," she said, the words obviously a strain to get out. Her large, watery blue eyes stared pleadingly at Reville.

"An empath cannot become a king, Princess. It is that simple. As we have never courted, I see no reason for this matter to have come up in the first place."

"But I…" she began, getting cut off by a cold glare from the young man she loved.

"No. Marry Okin, send me back to Kajor, or prepare for war. Those are your options."

With that, the empath turned and limped out of the room as quickly as he could with his bad leg, forcing himself not to rush forward and comfort his best friend, who was now in her father's arms, crying her heart out.

As soon as he stepped out of the room, he found himself close to crying. He hid his eyes behind a hand and took a shuddering breath, trying to force his emotions back.

He did love Shara. She was kind, beautiful, intelligent, and honest… and she loved him. There was no mistaking that warm glow of emotion he felt from her every time she looked at him, nor the undisguised admiration in her sparkling eyes. Even though he was an empath, even though he was handicapped, even though it was his fault she had been captured and nearly been tortured in the past. She had been his best friend for over five years, whereas that idiot Okin knew nothing about her other than her being the crown princess of Jarked.

No! I have no right to desire such a thing, he reminded himself, for not the first time, and certainly far from the last. I can't have her. She's a princess. She belongs to Jarked, to its people, and not to any one person. Certainly not an empath, who is nothing more than a tool to whichever kingdom is lucky enough to claim him.

Why can't I convince myself of something so simple?

After he had gotten control of himself, he lowered his hand, and stared down the palace halls, trying to find peace. However, before his very eyes, the world seemed to shift, and suddenly he was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere completely foreign and alarmingly loud.

Reville was surrounded by hundreds of people of all ages. Possibly thousands. They were certainly real, as he could feel their thoughts on the edge of his senses, and their emotions as the waves on a beach, each successive wave that much closer to flooding his mind. For the first time in his life, there was too much pounding against his empathic senses for him to even isolate the individual emotions. All he could feel was one big, ugly, swirly brown mess pressing down painfully.

Plus they were all talking. At the same time, to different people, about different subjects. The hundreds of voices through his ears and the thousands of voices trickling through his telepathic senses were beginning to get mixed up. He quickly thickened his mental guard, trying to block out at least the voices coming through his telepathy.

He narrowed his eyes against a rapidly increasing headache and looked around. Wherever he was, it was real. In his dreams, he never sensed thoughts or felt emotions. Usually he just relived nightmarish events from when he'd belonged to the sadistic King Kajor. So, if this was not a dream, and certainly not one of those nightmares, where was he?

A giant sign declared "Welcome to the newly remodeled Jump City Mall!"

Mall. He knew what a mall was. A large outdoor market where merchants would gather and set up their stalls. Sometimes it would fill a whole plaza, but usually it just stretched down a long street.

Well, he certainly wasn't outdoors, but it did appear to be some sort of market. The people rushing past him carried armloads of goods, mostly consisting of clothing as far as he could tell.

Jump City. Never heard of it. But it was a city, so it was big, and it had a name, so it was a large place with history and had to be on a map somewhere. He would have to find a map, which meant he probably would need to find some sort of library. Most large cities had location markers on strategically placed signs…

There! What looked like a giant sign. It even had the word "Directions" written at the top in large letters.

Wow, his head hurt. The giant mess pressing against him seemed to have encircled his brain and started to squeeze. His mind throbbed, but he made his way through the crowd, limping over to the large sign which was apparently some sort of map of this mall.

Okay, maps were good. He could read maps. This one was even marked with a handy "You Are Here!" tag. Reville scanned the map and found the quickest way from the "You Are Here!" to the nearest point marked "Entrance/Exit," ignoring the names of various merchants and the like.

Before he even thought about getting to a library, he had to get out of this overcrowded mall. His thinking was beginning to get fuzzy as his control began slipping, unable to handle holding up against such an enormous quantity of emotion and thoughts. He was about halfway to the exit when suddenly the thousands of thoughts burst through his mental guard, overwhelming his mind with senseless jabbering and heavy weights of mixed up emotions not his own.

He nearly fell flat on his face. As it was, his bad leg gave out and he stumbled, only just catching the back of a bench, his face contorted with pain.

A strong arm grabbed his and helped him to the bench, where he buried his face in his hands and struggled to rebuild his mental walls, a nearly impossible feat after they had been shattered so completely.

Let me help, said a strong, confident young woman's voice, pushing past all the miscellaneous thoughts and emotions into the core of his mind.

Help? How…?

Concentrate. Focus. I'll shield your mind until you are recovered.

And, sure enough, a sort of black shadow that the overwhelmed empath found extremely calming wrapped around his mind, blocking out all the intrusive emotions and thoughts.

Reville sighed in relief and quickly focused on his mental walls, reconfirming his own existence and repairing his mind, allowing his senses to recover from the onslaught. As his strength returned, the calming shadow retreated, leaving behind the impression of a raven as it finally left his mind.

Reville looked up, and found himself sitting next to a strangely beautiful girl, with pale white skin, large, dark violet eyes, chin-length purple hair, and a dark blue cape over an all black outfit. A gemstone was set in her forehead. And she felt like…

"Are you…?" he began.

"An empath/telepath? Yes, among other things," she said, in a cold monotone.

"Thank you."

Raven examined the young empath in front of her. He was closer in age to Cyborg than herself, either eighteen or nineteen. His giant, almond-shaped eyes were startling, a pitch black so deep she could not distinguish the pupil from the iris. Medium-brown skin, set in a face with handsome, possibly middle-eastern features and surrounded by hair as pitch black as his eyes.

Her eyes swept down to his outfit, almost as out of place at the mall as her own. He wore all black, loose slacks, loose shirt, except for a bright blue sash around his slim waist. He was quite tall, and athletically trim rather than thin.

In all honesty, he looked like a character from the book Arabian Nights. She wouldn't be surprised if he gave his name as Aladdin or mentioned being related to a sheik.

And he was an empath/telepath. It had been a while since she last ran into one. He was quite powerful as well, though is control was not up to par with the level of his abilities.

"You lack focus," she said coldly.

His slight smile and air of thankfulness disappeared at her accusation.

"You were seconds from breaking. And I'm sure we both know what happens when an empath/telepath breaks."

His presence turned from interested and curious to cold and closed-off, though Raven sensed a trace a pain behind his words.

"Thank you for your well-warranted advice," he said stiffly, standing up from the bench. "But I must be on my way." He began limping off in the direction of the nearest exit.

"Where are you going?" she asked, getting to her own feet.

"I fail to see how that is any of your business."

Raven's eyes narrowed and took the few steps needed to catch up to him.

"It is indeed my business. I belong to a group in charge of protecting this city. I had finished apprehending a villainess upstairs," she gestured off towards another section of the mall, "when I felt the presence of an empath/telepath appear out of nowhere, though I can sense you do not have the ability of teleportation. I came to observe, and as I approached I felt your mind nearly break, endangering everyone in this mall. Now, you tell me if I should let you go."

They had stopped walking as Raven began her little speech.

"No," said Reville quietly. "No, you shouldn't."

"I see we agree on something. Now, where were you going and where are you from?"

"I live in the kingdom of Jarked. I was going to leave this mall to find a library, with the hopes of finding my way back, as I do not know how I got here."

Raven frowned. "I have never heard of Jarked, and I do not believe you are from this world. As I did not sense a temporal distortion in time or space, perhaps this was some sort of mechanical teleportation."

Confusion and fear surrounded the empathic teenager. It seemed he understood most of her words, but it was taking a minute for comprehension to sink in.

"Not… of this world? I'm in a different world entirely?"

"I believe so. We Teen Titans have faced similar situations in the past. Allow me to contact our team leader to let him know of this, and I'll take you back to Titans Tower while we figure this out."

Reville nodded and Raven pulled out her communicator.

"Robin?" she called.

"Robin here. Yes, Raven?" came a voice out of the communicator. From the startled look on Reville's face, it appeared his world was one where radio technology had not yet been invented.

"I've run into an empath possibly from another world. He is not immediately dangerous and he has no idea how he got here or how to get home."

A sigh from Robin crackled over the communicator before he replied.

"I've run into someone from another world as well, Raven. Some sort of superhero, and he appears to be from a world far less advanced than ours. Perhaps there was some sort of spatial anomaly?"

Raven blinked in surprise. She looked over at Reville, who shrugged helplessly.

"I did not sense one, but it would explain their presences. If that is indeed the case, there could be more."

"Take the empath back to the Tower, Raven, and begin scanning for a source to this problem and any other strange presences. I'll contact Cyborg to scan for any physical anomalies or signs of mechanical teleportation. Agreed?"

"Agreed, Robin. I'm on my way."

Author's Note: Again, this is an entirely new chapter two, so there will be inconsistencies between this and later chapters. Feel free to point out those inconsistencies and/or give your opinions about this chapter! Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing what you think.