Hey guys, I am officially back from the holidays!! So I know that the prolog was a little vague, but I'm using it to set up the story. Same for the first couple chapters, but trust me. Hang in there and it'll start to pick up. Just an FYI, I'm a HUGE fan of cliff hangers, sooooo...be for-warned. Ok, so we've got the prolog, now we need...a story! That would be helpful right? Ok, ok, I'm getting there. One more thing...Review! I really want to know what you guys think about this story, so don't be shy! Ok, story time!!!!
Also: Disclaimer: I do not own Teen TitansTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Chapter 1
18 years later...
Soft music and lulled conversations drifted from a bar off of a backstreet in the main city. It was mid afternoon and the heat from the dessert wafted into the establishment through the open door and windows.
Outside the streets were deserted, the heat of the day already taking its toll. The eerie quiet from the many buildings only made the noises coming from the bar magnified in volume.
Inside several booths and private tables lined the outside wall. Across the room the main bar ran across a majority of the back wall. Bench stools were lined up and pushed up under the bar's ledge.
A bartender stood behind the bar cleaning glasses for that night's inevitable crowd. At the bar sat a couple of weary souls nursing their drinks and quietly contemplating the reason they were in a bar at 3 in the afternoon. A handful of people were spread out throughout the rest of the bar, some quietly talking amongst themselves, others watching the Univeral News Telobraodcast on the multiple screens set up around the room.
In a dark back corner an even darker figure sat, an ice cold beverage sitting on the table, untouched, in front of him. Smoke slowly billowed from the area where his face would be, if one could see through the shadows to see his face.The figure sat there, watching the news telobraodcast on the screen above his table.
"Well Gene, if you want my opinion, I think this whole arrangement is worthless. I mean, why force one of the most, if not the most, powerful royal families to fight for their own crown? I mean, it is a monarchy after all, if you're born into it, you're born into it! If you're not, you're not! It's as simple as that!"
"Yes Marx, we know. But not everything can be as simple as that. Take the marital alliance for example. If the princess doesn't win the tournament, she still has to go through with her marriage to Prince Orben, the crown prince of Octener. Now that makes no sense. If she's going to lose the tournament and lose her title, her position, basically her everything, why should she have to go through with an arranged marriage that was based on all of those things!?"
The third news anchor shook his head. "I'll tell you what doesn't make sense. The bloke that she's marrying in the first place. While Octener is in need of an alliance of this size and stature, Tameran, however, is not. In fact, it's a reasonably large step down for Tameran to go through with this alliance. While Tameran is quite large and has a great deal of resources to bring to the table on this, Octener does not. It would be an incredible disadvantage for Tameran to go through with this."
"While I agree with you Clyde, who else is there for the princess to marry that can fit those standards, both as a person and as a people?"
Just then a picture of a young man appeared on the screen. He was human and had dark hair, tan skin and slightly pointed ears. His eyes were a dark emerald green and his smile was cocky, somewhat arrogant. There was a tooth that was sharper than the rest of his teeth. It was off to the side, but it was still noticeable.
"His royal highness, Prince Hawk of Azarath! He's perfect! He's only two years older than the princess, he's the second born so he is not the crowned heir of the entire kingdom, so he could move to Tameran and rule as king next to the princess once she was crowned queen, and there would be no confusion as to who would move where or inherit what. Like there is with Prince Orben. He's the first born, and therefore the heir of Octener. No one knows if he will move to Tameran or if the princesses will move to Octener. Meanwhile, while Prince Hawk is the second born, Azarath is one of the largest and most powerful kingdoms in the entire universe, therefore he will still have a sizable inheritance."
The news casters continued their debate over who was more suitable for the princess, a few even introduced a few more candidates for consideration. In the end they all agreed that Prince Hawk was the only logical choice.
Suddenly a knife landed in the middle of the screen, causing it to come to a complete halt. The whole room fell silent. Even the music seemed to take on a quieter tone. Everyone turned to look at the corner where the knife had come from. The figure from earlier was long gone, the only evidence of his presence was an empty glass sitting on the table, condensation still glistening on the surface of the glass, as well as enough money to pay for the drink and a new screen.
Bartender and customers alike looked to the screen to see what had upset the man so much. There, with a knife through the heart, was a picture of the Crown Princess of Tameran.
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Swing. Jab. Hit.
Go for their weakness.
Jump.
Pain. Do whatever will cause them pain. Of any kind.
Swing.
Blood. Always draw blood. The more blood, the better.
Back. Jump. Push. Stab.
Go for the kill. When you kill, make it meaningful.
Run. Swing. Hit.
And always...
Jab.
Always...
Jump.
Be the one left standing.
Tackle.
Sheeston'kur hit the ground. Hard. The point of my tah'al slipped under his chin and raised it just enough so he could see me.
"Gattcha."
He snarled and rolled his eyes. He did not like being defeated. He struggled for a moment, but soon realized that his efforts were futile and gave up. He then tapped out.
I released him from the hold I had used to pin him and stood. He slowly followed me off the floor.
It had become our normal to train everyday for at least two hours. Sheeston had been my friend since I was very young, and had been helping me train for years. Today was no exception.
"Face it Sheest, your student has become the master." I said with a smirk.
Sheeston'kur wasn't a horrible looking guy. In fact most of the girls around our age (or any other age for that matter) in the palace thought he was the handsomest guy in the universe. He was the heartthrob of Tameran. He even had the money and title to go with the looks.
He stood at about 6'1 and was built completely of muscle, but in a slender way. He had shoulder length, fiery red hair, just like every other Tameranian. He had orange tinted skin and dark green eyes, again, just like every other Tameranian.
He had high cheekbones and sharp angular facial features. So I guess he was nice to look at, sure, but I didn't find him die hard attractive.
He looked me out of the corner of his eye. "My student, is arrogant and cocky. That will get her into trouble when the time comes to fight for real."
He had the brains too. He was super smart and even held an honerary advisory position in his fathers political office. His father was a senator in the Tameranian court.
I leaned up against the tah'al and watched him start to clean up. He held himself with confidence and acted and worked with determination. True skills of a natural born leader and warrior. Unlike me.
I huffed in exasperation and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. But, seriously, why fight at all? It's just a throne."
"The throne is not something to be dismissed so quickly. Especially when it is the throne of an entire planet."
The cool, smooth voice came from the dark corner of the room. I had my back to the speaker, but I didn't need to them to know who it was.
At the sound of her voice, Sheeston stood up straight, turned around and slammed his right forearm to his chest, then bowed very stiffly. I just rolled my eyes.
"Hi Mom."
Stepping out of the shadows, the cold and graceful woman looked at Sheeston and the guards and dissmissed them with a simple, "leave us", and a wave of her hand.
Sheeston met my gaze and gave me a concernd look. He knew just as well as I did that I had missed an important ceremony earlier. He also knew how dealing with my mom could be.
I gave him a small nod. He took that as his que and left with the guards.
Once they had all left, she turned to me.
"And where were you?"
I kept my back to her as I began to pick up various weapons and equipment off the ground.
"Where was I when?"
I knew I was in trouble and that playing dumb would get me no where, but I had to try.
I could feel her glare on my back as I continued to avoid turning around.
"For the ceremony. You missed it."
"Ohhh, that. Yeah, I didn't want to go."
I finally turned and faced her. The anger in her eyes was unmistakable and unforgiving. I gulped. That was the same look that enemy warriors saw just before they surrendered.
"You embarrassed me! The entire kingdom was there, waiting to see you. And what happens? Nothing! You want to know why?"
She started pacing back and forth, her arms clasped firmly behind her back.
"Not really." I mumbled to myself.
I hung my head to study my boots. How interesting they were...
"Because you weren't there. How could you do such a thing to me?"
I often question my sanity. So do the few people who know me. We are all very concerned for my health. Especially when it is in the hands of my mother. And even though I had a small voice in the back of my head saying it wasn't a good idea, I chose to be a smart mouth...
"Well, not the whole kingdom was there, I mean Sheeston and a few gaurds were in here with me...and then there are the other gaurds around the palace..."
Again, I could feel the glare on my head as I avoided direct eye contact.
"Don't you get smart with me young lady. You know very well that you were supposed to be there, and you weren't."
She paused.
"What have you been doing anyway?"
I looked up to face her. "Training."
She raised an eyebrow. "Training?"
I sighed. "Yes training. Training for your stupid tournament for the freakin crown..."
In reality, pissing of my mom was probably not the best idea in the world. And it took guts too. She was dressed to the nines in her formal gown, robes, partial armor and crown. She looked terrifying. Again, many times during my childhood my siblings have actually questioned my sanity for purposefully angering Mom. Again, there were a few instances when I questioned my sanity. But those were the very rare instances when I went way to far and Mom got super mad. This was turning into one of those times.
"The crown is not some trivial thing to be disrespected. It is important to our culture, our society, and our lives. If you knew what I have gone through to keep..." she paused as if she was thinking about something. She got a sad, far off look in her eyes for about a millisecond before she shook it off and continued. "This is not a trivial matter. It is important. And it is important that you fight for it and keep it in our family. This is not something to be taken lightly."
Her anger flared in her eyes and she spoke in a calm and cool voice. That was how you knew when she was really angry. She was calm.
She took a deep breath and seemed to relax a little.
"It doesn't matter now. You missed the ceremony. Fine. But the party is in a few hours, and that you will NOT miss."
With that and a wide sweep of her dress and robes she was gone.
I took a look around the gym like room. There was training equipment and shelves lining the walls all around the room. A section of the hard rock floor was outlined by benches for fighting and training.
It was still a mess from Sheest's and I's training/work out.
I looked back at the door and sighed. I hung my head and let my shoulders droop.
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I stepped out of the shower feeling somewhat relaxed. Long, hot showers always made me feel more relaxed. Steam filled the room to the point where I could barley see. Having a tolerance for extreme temperatures sometimes let things like hot showers get a little outta hand.
I grabbed the white, fluffy towel off of the counter, wrapped up and opened the door. A cool breeze from my bedroom sent goosebumps across my skin.
I walked over to my vanity mirror to find my hair brush. Finding it, I stood in front of the mirror brushing out the tangles in my wet hair. As the brush ran through my long hair, I started to think about how I looked. I thought about how my hair was so different from every other Tameranian's hair.
My hair is long, and blonde. Like, yellow blonde. It's really weird here, because every one else either has black hair or firey red hair. Mine? Bright, light, golden blonde.
I put my hair brush down and let my towel fall to the floor. Turning in the mirror I began to examine myself.
As if the color of my hair wasn't enough of a difference, my skin was noticeably different too. While everyone else's skin held an orange tint to it, mine was simply a light bronze tone. My height difference was noticeable too. While everyone else was tall and skinny, I was considered small and curvy.
I slowly turned, looking from my back to my front, looking at everything I could. As I went, I mentally compared myself to my mom, sister and aunt. Mom had firey red hair and orange tinted skin, so did my sister and my aunt, but they had jet black hair instead of red. All three of them were tall, mom and Aunt Komi standing at about 5'11, and Mar'i standing at about 5'6, 5'7 ish, which is a lot taller than I was at her age. They were all skinny, I mean, they had figures, sure, but nothing overly noticeable. They were perfect.
Me? I stand at about 5'8 and while I'm not anywhere near being overweight or anything, I still had much more of a figure than the other women in my family. Like I said, light bronze tone skin, long golden hair that flowed past my waist and muscle. The years of training had built up my physic enough for it to be noticeable.
My face was round and soft, with high cheekbones and a small nose. My eyes are the only things that are normal. They're bright green and have a mix of several other colors in the iris. Colors like blue, brown, gray and gold. Some might go so far as to call them pretty, but I couldn't think of anyone who would.
I sighed and moved on from features to scars. The white lines covered my body from head to toe in every shape and size. Literally. Each of them told a story too. "Scars are something to be proud of. Every scar stands for a battle fought and won."
The words of my instructor on Osaye came to my mind as I examined every scar that I had.
From the scars that crisscrossed my back, curtesy of several whips, all the way to barbed wire imprints wrapped around my ankle. My entire body was literally a map of torture methods.
I sighed. Again. It's a bad habit.
I moved over to my wardrobe full of ceremonial and formal clothes. I opened it up and just stared. It was all pretty much nothing but purple. I was sick of purple.
There was a sudden banging on my door. It was so loud and so sudden that I jumped 3 feet in the air.
"X'hal..." I muttered under my breath. "Yes?" I said once I had calmed my breathing.
"Air'i! Hurry! You must come see this!!!" The voice of my little sister sounded urgent.
"Coming!" I yelled at the door. I then proceeded to quickly dress in what we called chamber clothes, which just meant we only wore them around our private chambers. This particular category of clothes consisted of sweatpants, hoodies, t-shirts, tanks and other comfortable clothes from Earth. We weren't allowed to wear them around the rest of the palace, heck, we weren't even allowed to wear them around our private chambers if O'ran was home.
This was because Mom didn't want anyone to know that she still had possessions from Earth. Mostly because it was against the law. It would also called her loyalty into question.
I threw on a pair of sweatpants, a tank top, and a hoodie. I then grabbed a pair of socks and threw them on and left the safety and privacy of my room.
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Hey guys, again, sooooooo sorry it took so long to update.
Anyway, to find out who the mysterious knife thrower is, and what's going on in general you'll have to keep reading!!
I will say, that because I've been so busy, I might not continue this story. If you want this story to continue please review!! I will probably only continue if I get reviews saying that y'all want more.
So please read and review!! Thanks!!!