CHAPTER 2

The next day, Reaper woke to the sound of voices in the hallway, a small amount of light streaming into the room. The rain hadn't abated and the clouds still lingered, but he could tell that it was indeed morning. He groggily sat up and looked out the balcony door as everything that had happened the day before came rushing back. "Ugh,"he groaned quietly, bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration, all of his sorrow and anger filling his mind. Paired with persistently freakish dreams throughout the night, it was already giving him a headache.

Suddenly, the voices he'd heard outside stopped at his door, causing his eyes to widen. He could tell that they were slurring their words slightly, and then he heard the jangling of keys. Without waiting another moment, Reaper grasped his hoody from beneath his head, rolled off of the mattress to grab his boots, and jumped up with speedy efficiency.

Lacking the concentration needed to open a portal, he tore the balcony door open and ran through just as the people got into the room. He knew that they'd see him if he started flying immediately, so he instead launched himself up to the next floor's balcony. He'd left the glass door open, allowing him to hear the humans and their reactions if they'd seen him. Fortunately, all he heard was an,"I love you," and a female's drunken giggle.

Not wanting to stick around to see why he'd heard that, he warped his hoody and boots on before hovering upwards above the building. Once he was high enough, he leaned forward and flew towards the downtown area of the city, making sure he stayed hidden in the lower wisps of the clouds.


Perching atop one of the taller buildings in the city, Reaper watched the streets below as he tried to gather his options in his head. He needed information, and in a human city, it'd be hard to come by. Walking the streets and listening for clues to the Azarathian's whereabouts was out of the question, as was searching well-traveled establishments across the city. He couldn't simply waltz into a library and look through public records. For all he knew, the humans could be oblivious to her location just as he was.

Having trouble coming up with anymore ideas, he decided to go back over the ones he'd already thought about. The most promising one of those was the one involving libraries. He wouldn't be able to go right through the front door, but perhaps if he waited until night came back around, he could sneak into one in the less populated sections of the city, which he still didn't even know the name of. Just something else he could figure out by going with that plan.

But he'd still have to wait, and by the sound of his empty stomach growling, he'd have some trouble with that unless he searched for food. For that, he'd have to find a storeroom of some kind, and as far as he knew, those only existed in the backs of food markets. Finding one of those downtown would be too risky, so he jumped from his vantage point and began flying towards the area of the city with much shorter structures that were farther apart from one another.

Thankfully, he didn't have to look far for a grocery store. Not even ten minutes from the start of his search, he found one that had a mostly closed-off and out-of-the-way back alley behind it that was surrounded by the rears of other buildings. Deeming it worth the effort, Reaper dove down to where he could get a clear line of sight on his landing zone before slowing down to open a portal that would drop him there.

Making a landing maneuver in mid-air, he fell through the portal and landed in a kneeling position, startling an alley cat and causing it to hiss and scamper off. Glancing to his left and right, Reaper made sure no one else was there to witness his landing before standing up. Still cautious, he pressed himself against the store's brick wall so that he was mostly hidden by a dumpster. Crouching low, he moved towards the back door.

Luckily, he made it without being spotted and took hold of the handle, pulling the door open just enough for him to fit through. It's rusty hinges squealed a little, but peaking around the corner, he could tell there was no one inside to hear it. From what he could see through the double doors leading into the storefront, the lights were off and the place seemed to be closed. It was still early morning, so that came as no surprise; some things didn't change from one dimension to another.

Squeezing into the storage area, Reaper finally let his guard down and turned to shut the door tightly behind him. However, the luck that had favored him getting here just ran out. From the corner of his eye, he saw movement and then whoever it was stopping as it noticed him. Slowly turning his head to look at the figure, he saw that it was indeed a person as he'd feared. "What in the world?"the man said.

"Um...,"was all Reaper could come up with as an immediate reply before he formed actual words. "Do not do anything rash. I just need food,"he reasoned, hoping that it was too dark for his wings to be overly visible. Unfortunately, the human's eyesight was better than he thought, and the frightened man's immediate reaction was to run.

"They always run,"Reaper muttered. He couldn't afford to be spotted right now, so his only option was to teleport directly in front of his new target, stopping the man dead in his tracks.

"P-please don't hurt me,"the human squeaked, shirking away from Reaper in fear and putting his hands in front of his face.

"I apologize for this,"was all Reaper said, teleporting again, this time behind the man so he could wrap his arms around his throat. He could've easily broken his neck, but Reaper wasn't the ruthless, 'do anything to win' type, so he instead opted to choke his target until he passed out. Slowly lowering him to the ground, Reaper released him and stepped over the body to look into the storefront. After ensuring that no one else would be sneaking up on him, he pulled the human into the corner. Once that was done, Reaper stepped away and looked around the room, seeing a plethora of boxes to rifle through.

His stomach growling much louder now, he swiftly went about his task, warping a combat knife into his hands to make short work of the cardboard. By the time he was done with a few of them, he could already tell that he'd hit the jackpot. He could see a bunch of cans in one box and bottled water in another, which, in it's own right, was great, but he decided to find a couple more. Continuing his search, he found that there was also a box filled to the brim with smaller boxes of saltines, and another lined with jars of food he'd never even seen before.

Although he wanted to keep rooting through the containers for as long as possible, he could tell that the human was getting restless in his sleep, so he phased the boxes he'd opened so far out of that reality before heading for the door. Once he was outside, he shot up into the air and flew towards another group of apartments with the speed and purpose of a starving vulture hunting for sustenance.


Arriving at what appeared to be a fancier version of the apartments he'd visited before, Reaper went through the same procedure he'd used earlier for finding an empty room, except now he had to be more careful because the rooms were more spacious here. Finally settling on one at the top floor, he landed on it's balcony and peered inside before teleporting past the door, pulling down his hood as he did so.

Although the building was similar on the outside to the one before, the accommodations here seemed more permanent. It had a separate area for the bed and bathroom, and the part he stood in was a living room and a kitchen combined into one. By human standards, it was mediocre, at best, but for a Comedenti refugee in a strange land, it was more than he'd hoped for.

As his first order of business in his new home, Reaper took a chair from the small dining table in the kitchen and carried it over to the front door, pushing the back of it up under the doorknob to avoid a repeat of that morning. After finishing that, he immediately headed for the kitchen to begin preparing the food he'd pilfered.

When he first saw this place, Reaper had thought that the human's world would be full of much more high-tech and confusing appliances, but he'd been disappointed; the can opener, microwave, and refrigerator were all things they had where he was from. This allowed him to easily maneuver around the kitchen and fix a small meal, though, so he wasn't complaining. Within fifteen minutes, he'd thrown together a bowl of soup to keep himself nourished for the rest of the day, considering that the light outside was dimming quickly.

He would need to get going soon if he wanted to survey a library, so without further ado, he sat in the remaining chair at the table and began clearing his plate, or rather, his bowl. Armed with a spoon and some crackers, he swiftly inhaled the vegetable soup, occasionally taking lengthy drinks from a water bottle. The soup was lukewarm and the water even warmer, but he didn't mind. This was the best meal he'd had in weeks, and it wasn't even ten minutes before he was done.

Wiping his mouth with a towel, Reaper placed the bowl in the sink, not even bothering to wash it out before he headed towards the balcony. Pulling the sliding door open, he stepped out into the fresh air. The rain had finally stopped while he'd been inside, with the wind calming and the skies clearing as well. Combined with the low-light conditions that night brought, these were ideal conditions to start his flight. Pulling his hood back over his head, he vaulted over the railing and spread his wings.


Figuring that the largest library would hold the best collection of newspaper archives and records, Reaper had returned downtown. Night had completely fallen by now, allowing him to fly closer to the ground and easily spot the public library, which had the words Jump City Library inscribed above the entrance. He could tell through the upper story windows that the building was dark inside, so he wouldn't have to concern himself with waiting for everyone to leave.

Gliding lower, Reaper found a suitable window on the second floor and landed on the small alcove outside of it. Spotting a clear space on the inside, he teleported in and crouched low to the green carpeted floor beside a bookshelf. He could see through the bars of the railing near him that the library was very spacious inside, unsurprisingly filled with a massive amount of bookshelves and computer desks, with an ornate vaulted ceiling high above.

Being one of few people willing to gather as much knowledge as possible, Reaper would've liked to go through the plethora of books to research human culture and military information, but he had a mission to do. Taking one final look at the ground floor, he warped in front of a desk below that had numerous flat-screen computers on it. They were powered off, but he wasn't unfamiliar with electrical technology. Tracing the cord to it's power stick, he pressed the switch and a low hum emanated from the computers."Simple,"he whispered to himself, activating a monitor and booting it's system up.

Once that was done, Reaper brought up the catalog application and typed the word Azarath into the search bar. When nothing popped up, he realized that this probably wouldn't be as easy as he thought. He deleted his previous search and typed Azarathian next, still receiving no results. "Hmm. Let us try this,"he muttered, erasing the words again and replacing them with Anima Comedenti. To his surprise, the screen remained blank.

"What?"he said, a bit louder than he would've liked, unable to understand how the humans had no knowledge of not just one, but two other races. Glancing around to make sure no one heard him, he glared at the screen, all of his ideas exhausted. Racking his brain for just one more possible lookup, he managed to piece something together.

Remembering that even before the current demon incursion into the Realm, Trigon had been using Hell's armies to invade a number of times since Reaper was a child. They never got too far, but he always heard from his father that they'd been trying to reach the city in the sky and that the Comedenti were just in the way. When he heard of Trigon's defeat, rumors had begun to surface that it had happened in the human world. Seeing this as a promising lead, Reaper typed the former demon lord's name in.

This time, words and articles filled the screen, mainly under the newspaper category. "Success,"he smirked, proud of his own reasoning on this matter. All he needed to do now was find the area of the library that the newspaper archives were in, so he clicked on the first result to locate it. He hoped that they'd be nearby, but to his dismay, the words 'Article Located In Archives – See Administrator'was all that popped up.

"Of course,"Reaper sighed, shaking his head in frustration. Stepping away from the table, he looked around to see if he could find the archives room. Luckily, the door was in plain sight, with a nice, big sign overhead. He made his way towards it, but he knew it would be locked and that brute force would be necessary. Once he got to it, he grabbed the handle, leaned against the door, and reared back to slam his whole body against it. He had to try multiple times, but eventually, it gave away and flew open with a loud crack as the wood around the doorknob splintered and broke.

The room he'd broken into was a rather small space, with filing cabinets lining the walls on either side of the door and a large computer console across from it. The huge monitor above the console was already on, and all Reaper had to do was type Trigon into the search bar. The screen brought up the results from earlier, except now when he clicked on the same one, it opened the actual article. "At last."

As Reaper began to read the newspaper, he saw that Trigon had indeed invaded this world, beginning in the very city he was in now and leaving nothing but destruction in his wake. It never mentioned his name, and it was obvious that the humans had no idea who it really was. It also documented something to do with an apocalypse and every human on Earth being turned to stone, yet somehow still being aware of their surroundings.

Then it started to get into the relevant information that he was looking for. It spoke of how Trigon was defeated, with a band of superheroes referred to only as the "Teen Titans" somehow banishing him from the dimension. Reaching the end of the article, Reaper still didn't know who the Azarathian woman was, but if he could find the so-called Teen Titans, then he'd at least be one step closer to finding out.

As he began to back out of the article, Reaper heard a slight noise behind him, prompting him to bring up his armor, warp a pistol into his hand and spin around, pointing the weapon at a large figure in the doorway. "Who-"he started to say, but before he had a chance to finish, he was blown backwards into the console as a beam of energy struck him in the abdomen.

"You know, you really shouldn't play with guns,"a voice said as Reaper looked over at his assailant from the floor.

The man that stood there was dark-skinned, bald, and at least seven feet tall, but that wasn't what Reaper first noticed. Instead, it was the fact that over half of the behemoth's body was comprised of a large assortment of blue and white metal parts laced with what looked to be circuitry, with a gray chunk covering his torso. One side of his head was entirely covered in the robotic-looking material as well, with a large, glowing red eye. For an arm he had an electronic cannon that Reaper could only assume was the one that had blasted him, but as he laid there, it seemed to disappear before his eyes, transforming into an actual arm.

As Reaper began to rise to his feet, he noticed another, significantly shorter person beside the half-man, half-machine. This one was completely human from what Reaper could see, with black boots, green, skin-tight pants, a red shirt with green sleeves and a small R embroidered on it, a short black and yellow cape hanging from the back of his neck, and a black and white mask over his eyes along with his black spiky hair. Green gloves covered most of his arms, but enough skin still showed for Reaper to know that he was white, unlike his companion, revealing to Reaper that humans had come to accept others of differing color.

Once Reaper was standing again, he glared at the two. If they'd met with speech instead of firepower, then he wouldn't have attacked them, but since that wasn't the case, he felt obligated to return the favor. Teleporting behind the duo, he raised his pistol again and fired a burst of rounds into the big one's back. The bullets harmlessly bounced off the metal, though, and Reaper barely managed to fly into the air before the giant rotated and fired another beam at him. Flipping backwards and landing a few feet away, Reaper replaced his pistol with a twelve-gauge, pump-action shotgun.

He brought it up, but before he got a shot off, a smokescreen billowed up in front of him and he heard the same voice from earlier say,"Cyborg, go!" He quickly looked side-to-side as he began to back up out of the smoke, but as he did, a powerful kick came from behind, sending him stumbling forward just as another beam smashed into his side and launched him sideways into a bookshelf. The shelf fell over under the weight of Reaper's body ramming against it, and by the time the smoke had cleared, he was left crumpled atop a mountain of books and wood.

As he climbed to his feet, a flurry of strikes from his assailant's staff hit him from seemingly all sides, bouncing off his armor before one last blow collided with his chest, sending him flying backwards. Bouncing off the wall, he then landed flat on his face, the air being channeled straight out of his lungs as he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen.

In an effort to recover, he slowly pushed himself off of his stomach by his hands and feet, bolstering enough energy to spawn himself onto the upper floor where he'd first come in. He'd hoped that moving himself over there would buy him time, but he couldn't stop himself from releasing a loud, painful cough. "Ow,"he groaned, finally getting back up as he glanced around for his attackers. Unfortunately for him, they'd already managed to get to his position, and he was left defenseless as he stood before them, his hand on his belly and a scowl plastered across his face.

The one called Cyborg had his cannon trained on Reaper again, but he hadn't fired yet, seemingly waiting for his partner to speak. "Who are you? Why are you here?"the other one asked, a lengthy bo staff in his hand as he stood in a defensive position.

"What does it matter? You have me cornered. Take me in,"Reaper uttered in mock defeat.

"I gotcha covered, Robin. Go ahead,"Cyborg said as his friend nodded and shortened his staff, slowly moving towards Reaper. Once their guard was down and Robin was close enough to block Cyborg's shot, Reaper instantly dove towards the window, prompting a beam to be fired at him. Thankfully, it missed, and a portal opened right in front of him, giving immediate access to the outside. Another laser was fired as he flew through the opening, shattering the window that Reaper flew past and narrowly missing him by inches. Taking full advantage of the chance he had, he glided through the air and flapped his wings as much as he could, intermittently opening more portals to lose the two, his figurative tail between his legs.


AN: And there's the chapter. I hope that the length of this one was more satisfying than the last two, and that I've made it more interesting for readers. As for the content, especially the lore of the show included in this chapter, I made sure to research it the best I could, and I'm pretty sure that I got it all down correctly. As for the introduction of Robin and Cyborg, I hope that I characterized them correctly and as much as possible. But if anyone thinks I got something wrong, feel free to let me know and I'll try to correct it in the future, as the next chapter will include much more of an appearance from the Titans. And again, thanks to my reviewers for your input. It really boosts my morale regarding this story, and hopefully I'll get more as it progresses, even if some consist of less praise and more criticism. And now, since that's all out of the way, I'll see you all again next week.