-1Disclaimer: Once more, I do not own the Teen Titans, never have, probably never will. I say this so no one can say that I use copyrighted material illegally. I made up Shadow and Darkstar so maybe I own them. I own my chair and maybe my pants, not much else. Enjoy Chapter 2.
The Saga of Shadow
Cont'd.
Robin was the first to speak, " Well, hi Shadow, Darkstar, we're the Teen Titans. Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy…" he said pointing to each of his teammates in turn, who waved as he pointed, " and I'm Robin."
" Like I don't know who you guys are," Shadow said smiling.
" Hello new friends," Starfire said as she floated around Darkstar observing her as though she were a strange plant.
" DUDE! What was that monster thing you turned into?" Beast Boy inquired, dashing around Shadow as though hoping his tail was tucked into his boot.
" Oh that…that…was…that's my other form…" Shadow said as though he was rather reluctant to tell BB exactly what his "other form" was.
Raven walked toward Darkstar who was slightly disturbed by Starfire's examination of her. " Nice outfit," she said looking at Darkstar's black armor that she now realized bore a striking resemblance to Starfire's.
" Thanks, Raven, I modeled it after Starfire's, except mine's black and not as revealing", she said earning a glowing look from Starfire.
" So Shadow?", Cyborg said " who was that knight guy that was trying to take the city down to find you?
Shadow look over his shoulder and saw the sign for the Titans favorite pizza place and said, " How about I buy us a few pizzas and I'll fill you guys in?'
Naturally, none of the Titans were going to turn down free pizza. So, as the seven teens ate their pizza Shadow told the story of this mystery knight, as well as his own past.
" That knight is a servant of a being of terrible evil. A tyrant who seeks to destroy me just as he destroyed my parents before me. As I'm sure you guys saw, I can transform into a black monster, that's my true form, my human form is only part of what I actually am. That form is my Shadow Being form." The Titans all looked extremely confused. " I guess I'll start at the beginning. I am not form Earth, or even this dimension, thought I appear human I am not. I come from a land called Oblivion, a nightmarish realm of terrible beasts and monsters. My family ruled this realm for eons upon eons, but several years ago, before I was born, a being of terrible power attacked Oblivion to claim it as his own. He had powers none could match and killed and tortured without mercy, his name is Voltrex, or as his servants call him, Lord Voltrex. He slaughtered everything that stood in his way, but my parents just months before my birth fled their homeland, hoping that if their child could be hidden from this monster, he might survive, and maybe even avenge his family someday. They cam here, to Earth. They took human forms to hide amongst the populace. But, their efforts were in vain. Voltrex's minions found them and sought to murder them, but my parents were not powerless, they fought for their lives and mine. After losing a number of his servants trying to destroy my mother and father, he decided he would have to do it himself. He came to Earth, in mostly human form, my father stood against him while his wife fled with her infant son. She knew I would not be safe with her, so she passed me into the care of a friend she and my father had made here on Earth. My mother, ever the cunning one, dressed a doll and wrapped it in blankets to look like me so that when Voltrex caught up to her, in his frustration of having to hunt her down, he blasted her out of existence, and he believed, me along with her."
The Titans sat stunned at Shadow's tale of his parent's deaths.
" Wow…" Cyborg said looking rather sad, "so you never really even knew your parents?"
" No." my adopted father told me this when I first discovered my powers, just as my mother had asked him to years before.
" When I was around thirteen or so, I noticed I was different from the other children I knew. My "father" as I called him was a master fighter, and perhaps knowing what I would become, he trained me in various martial arts, and subjected me to rigorous training. But he was never harsh or cruel, but he knew I would someday find out who I really was, and he wanted me to be ready. I went to school like any human child and was as normal as expected for many years but, as I entered my teenage years, things changed. I noticed that I was faster and stronger than my classmates. At first, I attributed this to my training but, when a school bully was harassing me one day, something snapped, I transformed. People tend to notice a black monster with a tail, but what was more, I discovered that in this form I could also fly, and the scary part, I could hide in the shadows."
" What do you mean " hide in the shadows"? Raven asked.
Shadow stood up and stepped near Cyborg's shadow cast on the floor.
" Watch," he said. And with that he stepped onto and vanished into Cyborg's shadow. The Titans gasped, but Darkstar who had apparently seen this before laughed, as Shadow's head appeared out of Cyborg's shadow.
"How'd you do that?", asked the mechanical teen.
" It's one of my many Shadow Powers as I call them."
" But, wait…" Robin interrupted, " you said that monster thing is your true form, right?"
" Yeah…" Shadow said as he transformed, his new form towering over the other Titans, being at least ten feet tall. The Titans now saw that what they took for horns was actually just the way his skull turned into horn like ear things as his head rounded back. " This is the normal form of all those who dwell in Oblivion, all of us Shadow Beings look like this. But, as ancient and royal blood flows through my body I have powers most of them do not. I have even further enhanced strength and speed, my body heals at a much faster rate than a humans, I possess limited teleportation abilities, and I can manipulate Shadow Energy.
" Shadow Energy?" Raven asked
" Similar to your own dark energy Raven, but it draws on the power of the darkness of its user's heart, their emotions; anger, sorrow, and hate."
Starfire spoke at last, " This new father of yours, what became of him?"
" He's dead, when I was fourteen, Voltrex had somehow discovered that I was not as dead as he thought. He sent his knights like the one you fought today, a Shadowhand, some of his most powerful servants to kill me. My "father" stood against them to protect me, he fought and killed many of them, an amazing feat for a human, but they overcame him and murdered him. In my anger and sorrow at his death, I transformed again, unleashing power I didn't know I had. The blast from my eruption of rage destroyed all of Voltrex's knights, but the damage was done. The only family I had ever known was taken from me, and I swore my revenge. I decided to travel the world practice with my powers, perfect my abilities, and destroy the monster that had taken my world from me. One such new power was the power to open a portal to my home, to Oblivion. In my rush to destroy the one responsible for so much of my pain, I went to my family's home and challenged Voltrex. He nearly destroyed me with minimal effort on his part, I barely escaped with my life, but I now had an even more powerful desire to see him die by my own hand."
The Titans could see the determined look in Shadow's eyes as he spoke, most of them knew what it meant to want something so badly. Starfire turned toward Darkstar and asked, " Darkstar how is it that you and Shadow met, and how did you come to have your powers?"
Shadow's face dropped, but Darkstar on the other hand looked happy and almost cheerful as she began, " Actually I got my powers from Shadow here…" the Titans gaped in confusion at how someone could give someone else their powers. " I had known him most of my life, we'd been best friends since we were very young and when his father was murdered, the story was that there'd been a gas leak in his home, thus the explosion. At the funeral Shadow told me he was leaving, probably for good, I was sad of course but there was something more, I couldn't stand the thought of him leaving and that I might never see him again. I found him just before he was going to leave. I remember how horrible the storm was that night. He was packing he things…"
" And she came to my house crying…" Shadow interrupted, " she said I couldn't go, that she couldn't be without me, and it was then that I realized that I felt the same way about her. Then I remember she looked me straight in the eyes and told me that she loved me. The next thing I remember is kissing her, and something strange happened. I transformed again, not out of rage or sorrow, but out of pure happiness. I remember thinking how beautiful she was as the rain fell us standing in my front yard, but suddenly a bolt of lightning hit us."
Robin tore his gaze away from Starfire, and the Titans looked horrified. Obviously the incident hadn't killed them as they were sitting here eating pizza. But still…
" I'm not sure how, but getting struck by that bolt of lightning while we were standing there, crying, looking into each other's eyes, somehow it transferred a fraction of my powers to her. She can't transform or anything like I can, but as she showed fighting earlier she can manipulate Shadow energy like me, and use it as a weapon like I do but she can also do something that I can't. She can give the energy form, and create weapons and other solid objects with it. I have no idea how she does it but, she saved me with it several times. Anyway, after we realized what had happened and she took on her new identity she left with me and we've traveled the world ever since."
" He wouldn't let me go to Oblivion with him though. I was terrified that he wouldn't make it back, but then he stumbled out of his portal half dead, and I couldn't believe it."
" I guess that's about it," Shadow said looking as though he was thinking of anything he might've forgotten.
The Titans stared at each other. It was an amazing tale, even to the five of them, who had amazing pasts themselves, an alien, a demon, a cyborg, a shape shifting green kid, and one of the greatest human fighters alive.