DISCLAIMER: Still don't own... (duh!)
Titans Tower
"Star's right, my race is known as Soul Eaters, and Tamaranians and Soul Eaters go back a long way. Soul Eaters were one of an erratic sorcerer's experiments in trying to make a race that would utterly destroy the humans on Earth and then all other life in all dimensions that he was able to project them to. So, when we were created, he put the three or so Soul Eaters that he had developed on half of Tamaran as a test case. Unfortunately, one of the Soul Eaters turned around and ate his soul right after being deposited on the planet." Beast Boy gulped.
"At first, it went pretty well. These Soul Eaters only needed to feed once a year, and they reproduced very slowly, maybe one child every 14 years. However, something happened to make them feed more often. The more souls they feasted on, the more their minds thought they needed. Sadly, the Tamaranians were the only people on the planet whose souls these Soul Eaters could digest. It basically turned into the most devastating war Tamaranians have ever faced. To protect themselves from extinction, they had to get rid of the menace, but any time they got anywhere near the Soul Eaters, their soul would be eaten. Eventually, only four Tamaranians were left alive. See why Star started to attack me?"
Cyborg was puzzled. "Then how did the Star's people stop the attacks? I haven't come across this story in any of the history I've read, and I've just scanned the entire database from my home planet. That is a whole lot of information to go through."
Falcon smiled sadly. "You probably didn't find it because there were enough arguments about what was the truth in the battle. Now it is basically seen as a myth to warn Tamaranian children and a story to fuel the rage of young Soul Eaters. You see, neither side lost or won, so both of our people have a slightly different version of what happened. Oh, and the remaining Tamaranians launched a spaceship at half of their planet that would divide the planet and force the two halves away from each other. It actually worked. But what Starfire and the rest of her people don't know is that there's more to the story." Starfire's eyes perked with interest as the green fire in them dimmed.
"One of the Soul Eaters that got blasted away actually never had even thought of inhaling a Tamaran soul. The idea was repulsive to him, so he trained his body to survive on the souls of the natural animals. He had almost died many times while his body adjusted to the different diet than it was meant to have. Unfortunately, none of the others of his race had mastered the skill. To keep everyone from dying, this man figured out how to operate the spaceship. It surprisingly hadn't been too damaged by the crash, and could still fly." Falcon's eyes grew distant as she retold the story of the nameless Soul Eater.
"When the man could fully control the spaceship, he took a census of how many Soul Eaters there were. When he got the count, he flew down to Earth, which was the closest planet with humanoid life, and took the same number of humans as there were Soul Eaters back with him on the ship. He was careful to take only the ones that didn't want to continue their life, that were suicidal, depressed, or had severe disabilities that would make it very hard for them to fully enjoy life. He didn't take one for himself. This guy continued to do this every year, until one year, he found the woman of his dreams."
Beast Boy gave Falcon a dubious look. "I thought you said that if the guy got anywhere near human people, he would eat their soul!" He shivered. "What kind of woman would want him?"
Raven saw the laughter in her friend's eyes as she got ready to explain. "This guy had been denying the need to eat humanistic souls for so long that he wasn't able to do that anymore. Anyway, when the man brought back the other people for the Soul Eaters, he took the woman back with him, with her permission. He hid her from the others and eventually had a boy with her. This boy had all the characteristics of Soul Eaters, except for the fact that he could eat food." At their questioning looks, Starfire spoke up.
"It is commonly known on my planet that Soul Eaters are unable to consume any kind of food other than souls as it poisons them."
"Exactly Star. Eventually the boy's mother died, and his father left to take her body to a far distant planet. He never returned. Later on, the boy grew up and had his own kids. Now, 20 of all of this Soul Eater's offspring are unable to eat souls, but eat normal food instead. I'm one of those 20." Raven, you can take your force field off of Starfire now. Thanks.
Welcome"Would you like to see me eat food, Starfire? Will that convince you?" questioned Falcon. She so did not want for the alien girl to be prejudiced against her forever. Falcon was unprepared for her response, however.
Star flew up to her and pulled her into a bone crushing hug. "I am already convinced, Friend Falcon. You need not convince me of anything. Maybe you will be easier to take to the mall of shopping than Friend Raven!" Star stated gleefully. "We could also do the 'girl time' and the painting of the toe nails and talk the girl talk and..."
"Star... can't breathe..." struggled this newfound friend. Looking embarrassed, Star let her go and floated back a few paces. All of the other titans except Raven sported wide-eyed looks at the end of the story. Silence reigned for a few minutes.
Looking outside, Raven broke the silence by noting, "It's getting late, we should get to our rooms. Falcon, you can stay in my room until we can get you one of your own. If you really managed to piss my mom off that bad, I think that you'll be here for at least a year." With that, the two of them joined hands and phased over to Raven's room. In a daze, the remaining four titans made their way to their own rooms, wondering what adventures the next day would have in store for them.
Titans Tower
The next morning, everything went as normal. Robin was the first one up, and made himself a healthy breakfast before heading down to the gym to train. Beast Boy and Cyborg came in a little later and had their normal tofu/meat debate, while Starfire entered and tried to cook some traditional Tamaranian food. The two boys stopped arguing long enough to convince her otherwise. The only thing missing was Raven's morning cup of herbal tea. Nobody was too worried however, until they realized that it was almost four in the afternoon and neither Raven or Falcon had shown up anywhere. Why would Falcon ask to use the training course for a fight this afternoon if she and Raven planned to disappear. Neither one showed up on the scanners anywhere inside the tower... thought Robin, trying to figure out why he was so concerned about where this friend of Raven's had gone. Oh well, as much as I hate to admit it, the best thing to do would be to wait for them to show up.
Luckily, he didn't have to wait long. Within 10 minutes, Raven and Falcon phased through the floor, startling Star, who happened to be almost in the exact spot where they had appeared. "Hey Robin," started Falcon with a relaxed grin on her face, "think that Raven and I could use the training course now that we've had time to warm up?" Looking around the room at her friends, Raven added, "Of course you guys can come and watch too, just be prepared, our longest fight has been a little over a full day long, and the shortest was about nine hours. It might not be very interesting."
"Like I would want to miss this!" exclaimed Cy as he jumped off the couch where he and BB had been playing their Xbox, who knows which game this time. Raven and Falcon just glanced at each other slyly, an exact mirror image of their expressions. Synchronized, they turned and made their way down to the first level of Titans Tower.
When they got there, Raven looked around the place, and quickly moved the training equipment over into three of the storage areas located around the area. Turning to Robin, she apologized, "This may get a bit messy, we need a large flat area to fight at our best. It should be quite a show for you." she added, a mischievous light shining in her amethyst eyes. Without another word, she walked away, towards the center of the course. Falcon met her there, standing in a ready yet relaxed stance as she looked Raven in the eyes. "Same reward?" questioned Raven in a voice just loud enough for everyone to hear. At Falcon's nod, the two levitated about two feet off the ground and flew back around 15 feet each.
Hovering there, the two of them moved as if to punch the ground while still leaving the two feet in between their hand and the dirt. Opening the hand that they punched with, their eyes began to blaze white as they raised their hand. As they did that, an oval formed, encompassing them, and it levitated13 feet into the air. They now had their arena boundaries for the fight. You sure you want to do this Raven? Let them know all of your abilities? Don't worry Falcon, I want to do this. It's been long enough, I think I can trust them. OK...Taking a battle ready stance, they brought their Soul Selves forward, Raven's black power rippling over her skin, eyes still white, while the same happened to Falcon's deep purple power. A fight had begun.
Earlier in Raven's Room
The two longtime friends had talked way into the early morning, telling the other all of the mundane things that had happened in their life. Eventually, they got some sleep, and woke up refreshed at 8:00 that morning. "Hey Fal, maybe you should find a peace offering for Arella, 'cause I think you really frightened her by going into Trigon's mind, no matter how pissed off she seemed to be. It might help you not be so restrained when and if you go back to Azarath."
"Good idea Rae, but what sort of thing would I get, I have no idea what sort of thing your mom would like, at least what she doesn't have already." A slow smile started to form on Raven's face. She knew the exact thing that they could get, something that Arella would like, but would also understand that it was a practical joke from her daughter.
"Well... there is this one book that I think we could get her, that is, if you don't mind dimension hopping a bit with me. I promise we will be back in time for a fight later. If we didn't let the team see that, well, they would miss their fun of watching me beat the crap out of someone that isn't a villain or them."
Falcon's eyes grew black and sparkled. "Who says that you'll beat me? Not counting the stalemates, I've won 52 of our fights! I think there's about just an even chance of me winning over you. But yeah, I wouldn't want the team to not be able to see you losing a fight when the reason isn't people or dinosaurs slamming into you."
"How would you know about that?" questioned Raven. "I've never seen you down here when we were fighting, in fact, I've only seen you down here on Earth once."
"What else is there to do during boring meditation classes and staying in hiding than sending most of your self to Earth to watch your friend fight all of these crazy villains? Anyway, yes, I would like to look for this book with you, but I will only give it to your mom if you write a note and place it somewhere in the book. You've been out of contact with her for too long."
"Fine, I will write something to Arella and put it in the book, now lets get going!" With that, Raven grabbed Falcon's arm and dragged her into a portal. Or six, to be exact.
End Flashback
A/N: Hey guys, if you would let me know of any things you want to see in the fight between Raven and Falcon, that would be great. I'm a little out of ideas...