Chapter 1: An Offer You Can't Explain
WOW GUISE IM SOOO SRRY THT I HAVENT BEEN POSTING REGULARLY! IM RLLY RLLY RLLY RLLY SRRY!
But ykno, school and stuff. Plus, February 17th was my B-day. Im 15 niaow :033 But as my birthday present 2 u guise, Imma post wat I have niaow while I still got time
DISCLAIMER (WHICH I ALMOST FORGOT): I DONT OWN TEEN TITANS, JUST THE ZODIACS AND THE RANDOM LIL VILLIANS I MAKE UP, K?
Six months had passed since the events of Anti-Raven, but the Titans have no recollection of that night. Oddly enough, they never questioned it. If they don't remember, then, they supposed, that it wasn't that important.
But, nevertheless, they knew something was seriously wrong with their city.
Criminal rate has gone up rapidly in the past six months by villians they sworn were gone for good. The Titans were frantic and weary trying to round them all up.
And there's been no sign whatsoever of the Zodiac, other than the occasional disappearance of a retired criminal. Twelve, two for each month that's gone by.
One night, the Titans were investigating a robbery in a warehouse on the other side of town. When they got there, all was quiet around the perimeter. No one in sight. The moon provided little light, waning into a crescent. Yet, there might be crouching theives or Zodiacs lurking, waiting to ambush the weary group.
Robin waited at the enterance to the warehouse when the rest of his team regrouped with similar reports: All was quiet.
"That doesn't make any sense. The computer said that there was a robbery in progress at the warehouses." Robin said, frustrated.
"Did we recieve the wrong location?" Starfire asked. "Or perhaps we missed our target objective?"
"Not possible. We headed over as soon as we could. We'd still at least see some guards." Raven quipped up.
"There's something... off about this..." Robin glanced at his fellow Titans. They were all thinking the same thing.
Libra.
Situations like this, where a dark, menacing presence loomed over them, that was their first conclusion. And, usually, they were right. But due to the stunning lack of murderous little children running around, there was doubt.
Robin nodded and kicked the door open, yelling, "Freeze!"
But none of them were prepared for what awaited them inside.
The Titans stood in shock as they took in the scene in front of them.
The first thing that anyone registered:
Blood...
Everywhere.
It's iron-like scent, so strong you can almost taste it.
It's consistent dripping from the steel braces and wall, even flowing heavily in miniature red waterfalls.
It was under their feet and all over the floor, pooling up frequently in large amounts and creating medium-sized puddles. It obscured the real color of the floor...
It stained the entire room red.
Unless you could fly, you were stuck walking in the shallow red pond of once-life essence.
Beast Boy shifted into a hawk and flew to a torn part of the wall, where it caved in, like something forced their way through the steel wall, and created a perch that wasn't completely covered with blood.
For Robin and Cyborg, Raven created a moving platform of black energy to levitate them over the blood. She and Starfire flew above the blood, scanning for anything in the sea of red.
Robin turned on his flashlight, and Cyborg turned on the one light he has in his shoulder. Starfire used her hands, making them glow light green with her unreleased starbolts.
There wasn't just a sea of blood; there were piles of robotic bodies all over the place, torn up beyond recognition, but all five Titans knew what that meant.
Slade was back!
Gorilla fur was also scattered everywhere, along with other kinds of animal fur that were too blood-soaked to be identified.
Beast Boy was the first to know whose fur that was.
"Monsieur Mallah!" he gasped when he shifted into a human and examined the fur.
"The Brotherhood of Evil?" Raven asked. "But, we were victorious against them in the final battle." Starfire pointed out.
"Slade must've freed them." Robin said.
"And gotten a few animals to rise with them." Cyborg picked up a few tufts of the fur. He scanned them with his arm scanner.
"Cougars, lions, rams, even animals that don't even exist! I'm picking up chimaera, coeurl, even a bit of dragon!" Cyborg gave the scanner a puzzled glance. "Strange. Each fur sample has the same genetic makeup, like they're all the same animal."
Everyone turned to look at Beast Boy.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The changeling raised his arms defensively. "You guys don't seriously think that I'm the one who caused all this!"
"Well, you are the one who can assume the many creature forms." Starfire pointed out.
"Can't be him." Cyborg said. "The furs come in different colors. He can only be green."
"Then who is it?" Robin asked.
"I don't know."
The Titans continued to search the bloody room. They were almost finished when Starfire's sudden scream made them all flock to the corner, where a little girl's bloody body lay, dead.
She was too blood-stained to tell what color her clothes were, but she wore the familiar cloak of the Zodiacs. Other than that, she had short hair, again, color unknown, and her cobalt-blue eyes stared up at nothing. The cause of death seemed to be from the heavily bleeding injuries that crisscrossed her body. The sight made Starfire cry and almost made everyone else cry, except Raven, who's only remark was, "Whoa."
"Don't touch her!"
The Titans jumped and whirled around at the familiar voice of Libra. But she wasn't alone. Ten other children were with her, falling behind her in a somewhat orderly fashion. A pink-cloaked girl had tears in her eyes, and several others sniffed sadly. A young girl in jade-green just stood next to Libra's left side, holding her hand as she stared in shock at the dead girl. On Libra's right was a boy in a lab coat who glanced between the Zodiac Leader and the Titans.
"Don't touch her..." Libra repeated, voice softer. Her hood was up, masking her feelings, but her yellow cat eyes glinted sadly from her shadowed face.
"What happened here?" Robin's voice was cold, offering the group no sympathy.
"Our duty." Libra responded simply.
"Dude, no games," Beast Boy said boldly. "What went down?"
The boy in the lab coat looked at Libra. "We need to tell them. It's their battle too."
"No, it isn't!" Libra hissed, turning to face him. "Leo died, Cancer! Two of us had died! None of them had!" She indicated to the Titans. "I came back to collect Leo, not to tell our sob story!"
Cancer stood up to his full height as he stared down at Libra. "If you don't tell them, I will!" he said.
"You would dare defy your Leader? You know what that means, Cancer? It means you challenge my Leadership!"
"I don't care. Times have changed. So have the rules."
There was an audible gasp from the Zodiacs. Libra and Cancer glared at each other. The Titans stood, puzzled.
Finally, Libra broke eye contact with a scowl. "Fine! Tell them! But remember the punishment for defying an order."
Cancer nodded stiffly before turning to the Titans, eyes full of determination.
"It started six months ago, on the blood moon. We were performing our monthly ritual of recharging our Gems." Libra flinched when Cancer said this. He's revealing too much information, she thought.
"Libra had just put her Gem in when Slade and the Brother of Evil attacked. We were horribly outnumbered and were forced to retreat after losing Virgo. After that day, they were crawling the streets, searching for us. Only Libra and Capricorn could navigate around the city without confronting them. It was up to them to provide the kills for us to keep the Gems recharged. On every blood moon, the field where we would normally go was heavily guarded, so we had to perform the ritual on your roof. Our apologies, by the way," Cancer added, "for not having your permission, but we have to do what we must to survive.
"As for tonight-"
Libra scowled. "That's enough, Cer. They don't need to know anymore."
"Actually," Robin said, "I think you should finish the story."
"Tonight was an important raid for them. They were planning to take something dangerous from this warehouse, and we were here to intercept them. But Slade seemed to be one step ahead of us. He sent countless amounts of his robot slaves, as well as Monsieur Mallah, Professor Chang and his cronies, and the Happy Stabber." Cancer shuddered.
"I killed Happy Stabber, but not soon enough." Libra said reluctantly.
"He killed Leo." a cerulean-clad girl stepped up and stood beside Cancer. She wore cerulean-streaked black bangs over half of her face, held there by a glittering cerulean pin. Water designs patterned her cloak.
"You won't remember me, but my name is Scorpio." she introduced, and Libra hissed.
"We've revealed too much. Scorpio, Cancer, silence yourselves, or face the consequences more severe than you'll imagine."
Scorpio stayed quiet, but Cancer talked once more.
"Happy Stabber killed Leo, and we tried to take out as many criminals as we could, but, again, we were outnumbered and defeated. But we managed to get this, so it wasn't a total loss."
Cancer took a hand out of his pocket and withdrew a round, silver sphere. "We're not sure what it does yet, but-"
"Enough!"
Libra punched Cancer in the jaw, taking him by surprise, knocking him down to the blood-soaked floor. The silver object flew towards the Titans, but a shadow launched up from the ground and snatched it mid-air before bringing it back to Libra, who pocketed it somewhere in her cloak.
"Let us leave in one piece," Libra demanded, and, for the first time, the Titans noticed how bloody, battered, and weary the Zodiacs looked, Libra seeming the most tired and bloody.
A black-cloaked boy who looked similar to Libra looked at the Titans. "Please?" he asked. "We're only trying to survive. We're only trying to help."
Robin cast a glance towards his fellow Titans, then they nodded simoutaineously. They were all thinking the same thing.
"Libra," Robin addressed the Zodiac Leader. "Have you ever heard the saying, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'?"
"Philosophy doesn't suit you, Robin." Libra snarled. There was a silver glint from inside her cloak, and then she shot her silver knife from its depths. Raven intercepted the knife mid-air with her magic.
"What I'm trying to say is, you need help, and Slade is a big problem for both of us." Robin spoke gently to the Leader, who seemed on the brink of going completely insane from the situation.
"We can handle this war! We provoked this war for years, and we can beat them down."
"Then why haven't you?"
Silence as heavy as the scent of blood descended on the Zodiac Leader as she glared at Robin. She was refusing to admit she was weak. Always be stong. Sagittarius' first lesson was very painful, physically speaking. If she squinted and looked very closely, Libra could still see the scars on her arms from his shell shruikens that had imbedded themselves deep in her skin all those years ago.
Now, faced with the choice, she could asked for help, or she could just collect Leo and walk away. Either way, she'd be giving in. Asking for help, she'd give in to the Titans. Walk away, give in to Slade.
With a sigh that sounded like a growl, she gave Cancer, who was staring at her with earnest, an uneasy glance.
She looked back at her Zodiacs. Each one had fear and, worse, doubt, in their eyes, some more than others. Their uncertainty cut deep in Libra's pride as a Leader. She had made her choice.
Focusing cold, but admittingly fearful yellow cat eyes on Robin, she spoke words that may have brought all hell upon her and her team, as well as the Titans:
"You're right." Her Zodiacs gasped, but Libra ignored them and continued. "We need to work together in order to vanquish this enemy."
Taking a deep breath, she asked the question burning on everyone's tongue:
"Will you help us?"
PLOT TWIST: LIBRA HAS A SOUL- no.. she doesnt :033
Plz R&R. Reviews make me happy-face. :033
