Author's Note: Yep, some background for Vance. Find out what makes him tick.

I really wanted to try and evoke some sympathy for this character, where people would normally flat out hate him by now. I bet you did, and you're feeling pretty guilty right about now, aren't you?


They are worthless.

They are pathetic.

They are all that stand in our way.

And so they must be crushed.

A swipe of his blade, and a solid steel effigy of Cyborg split in half. Another cut, this time it was Raven and Beast Boy that fell apart. Robin, decapitated in one fell swoop.

Now, it was Starfire's turn. The other. A single slash, and she would be gone, as dead as the earth she would be buried in. But he couldn't do it. He couldn't kill her before, and now he couldn't even bring himself to harm a statue of her.

What was it, about this Tameranean, that so weakened his resolve. What was it about Starfire that made him unable to touch her, or even bear to see her in pain?

It was not her beauty. That was an illusion. Had he been blindfolded, then she would be no more beautiful than a hunk of coal.

It was more than that… something horrible, that he could no longer remember. Not quite. With an angry sigh, he sheathed his blade. He was a warrior. He had killed countless people. No… not people.

Monsters. He was making the world a better place.

It was his job, a task he must complete, before man succeeded in destroying himself, not with war or weapons, but through decadence. Vice.

Drugs, prostitutes, gambling. Even Jump City had felt the sting of these things in recent times, and he knew that even the Titan's could see that.

Meditation. That was one method of finding oneself, collecting your thought and achieving enlightenment. He had heard that Raven used meditative trance as a method of relaxation. He could imagine it, the spawn of a demon, a creature with the power to destroy the entire planet, maybe even the entire universe, sitting in the lotus position, as still as a rock.

He preferred, however, to simply think as he practiced his swordsmanship. Meditation was wonderful, when you had the time for it. Time was not something that assassins tended to have much of.

Sword be damned, he threw both his blades to the ground with a clatter. He had no idea why the Japanese held such respect for them. They were objects, useful while they served their purpose, but otherwise a burden.

He also realised that he had fought the Titan's using only one of his two blades. He had still defeated them. Perhaps, his mouth opened and closed silently, I should have used both. He remembered plenty of times during their battle where he could have stayed their tongues. Permanently.

He threw a switch, and another set of targets appeared, live fire droids. Thoughtfully provided by a mutual fiend. Wilson was useful, so long as he served his purpose. He had been more than willing to comply with Vance's wishes, once he learned that he would destroy the Titan's for him.

Cyborg, or an accurate enough approximation of him, fired a sonic blast at Vance's head. He raised his arm, knocked it aside as though it were a strand of spaghetti. These powers really do come in handy, after all.

Robo-Raven began her chant, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," only to have her head knocked off with a flying kick. Using the momentum this provided, he lunged at Robin. Just as expected, the droid prepared a counter lunge, ready to knock him out of the sky.

But he wasn't going after him. Not directly. Vance hit the ground, rolled, and sent a brutally powerful kick into the groin. He wasn't above using low blows to win a fight.

Honour was an outdated belief.

But, he remembered… it was something he too had believed in, once. Who am I? Who did I use to be? Beast Bot ran at him, the hologram around him indicating that he was a mighty steer.

With a simple spin, he had dodged the charge and felled the beast. Another movement, a snap of the neck, and he was dispatched.

Three down.

"Three down, man, if you hadn't of tagged me, I would've won."

What?

Cyborg jumped at him, great arms extended.

"You should have been watching. Speaking of which, these guy's have been following us for a while now, haven't they?"

Vance caved the right side of his head in with a bolt of shadow, then sliced it clean off with another.

"Claire, Hannah, stick closer to us."

Now only Starfire remained. Slade had programmed her very well, too. As she would have done in any similar situation, she let out a cry of rage and flew right at him, eyes blazing, thousands of starbolts pummelling him, as though he were standing in a meteor storm.

"Hey, you, keep walking."

"Why should I? My associates and I thought it would be nice to play a little game. You win, and you get to live."

Starbolts absorbed by the veil of shadow that surround Vance, the Starfire doppelganger started throwing incredibly brutal punches at him. One missed, and blew a three-foot hole in the wall behind him.

'Fuck, we're in trouble.'

"Damn right. First rule of the game, you give us everything you've got on you and," there was a thud as Jack David threw his wallet to the ground. Vance did the same, followed shortly by Claire and Hannah.

"What gives? There's barely enough in here to buy a tank of petrol"' Now one of the three men that held them hostage produced a gun.

A spin-kick. Vance changed stances, and used Starfire's own prodigious strength against her, hurling her bodily into another wall.

"Keep cool man. You must've seen us come out of Vinachi's? We had to pay through the nose to even get a reservation." It had been Claire's twenty-first birthday. Right now, Vance regretted not accepting the ride offer he had been given.

"What else have you got? Anything valuable?" He nodded towards Hannah, who promptly remover her earrings and gave them to him.

Rather than accepting the jewellery and leaving, he grabbed her arm and pulled her closer, until she was practically kissing him.

"Oh, I didn't mean that, sweetheart."

Vance threw punch after punch into Starfire's body, knocking back every attempt she made to counter-attack. A kick, and again she flew into the wall, only this time, a distinct snap echoed throughout the chamber. He did not let his guard down.

A wounded animal was infinitely more dangerous than even a cornered one.

But there was Robin! Yes, one of the Teen Titans. He could save them, all of them. He had seen him on the news, seen him jump into the middle of a whole street gang and come out on top.

But something was wrong. He was ignoring them; no, he was mocking them. For every punch they took, he was flung back, as though he were being beaten thoroughly by a spectral opponent.

"You- you're a monster, get away from- argggh." Brains, splattered on the wall, splattered on the ground, squish, squish, brains go squish.

Jack was dead, and this bastard didn't even care. He was too busy laughing at them from his vantage point.

Vance swore, then and there, that he would have revenge on the people that were responsible for Jack. The only friend he had ever had, lying in a stale grey pool of his own brains.

He would kill these people. He would kill them all. A fate that not even Robin could escape.

"Struggle all you want, it just makes it more fun. Don't worry about your friend," the thug laughed at Jack's mutilated corpse as he pulled Hannah's top off, "I think it actually makes an improvement to his appearance."

Hannah wasn't struggling anymore. She was too busy crying. Pleading, sobbing so pitifully that it made even Vance sick, she was begging, telling Jack to get up and stop pretending.

Vance had to protect her, do something. She was Jack's girlfriend, he had to – then he remembered. He had gone diving that morning, and he had forgotten to unstrap the Bowie Knife from his leg.

He lunged forwards, and, as expected, was knocked to the ground. Giving him the opportunity to pull the knife free and plunge it through the chest of the nearest of the three monsters. They weren't human.

"You'll pay for that!" Vance punched Starfire right in the head, knocking her to the ground.

Vance reeled as he was punched to the ground. He slashed with the knife, cut off fingers, and the slashed again, cutting something vital enough to spray blood all over him.

He was going berserk, just like Unit 01 on that Evangelion show he loved. He bought the knife down again, and just about clean sheared the arm off. The gun it held fell uselessly to his side. He released Hannah, and ran.

She immediately dove to Jack's side, cradling his empty head against her breast. Vance would avenge him. That was one comfort he could give them all.

Then, a stranger appeared from the shadow, or was it the shadow coming to him?

"Who are you?" He demanded his knife extended menacingly towards the figure.

"I? I am nothing. I am a shadow. I," he held up the corpse of the third and final attacker, "am salvation." Rather than let Vance interrogate him further, he simply continued. "This attack was unprovoked, and your friend died because of it. The fabled Teen Titans, supposed protectors of this city, proved themselves unworthy of their title. You had to watch your friend die. You did not deserve that."

Damn straight, but… even now, the truth of the situation, the fact that he would never see his friend, his brother, alive again, began to sink in. Vance fell to his knees, dropped his knife, and began to sob, great round tears pooling from the corners of his blue eyes.

The figure took a step forwards, and placed his hand on Vance's shoulder. "Join us. Join the League of Shadows, and my master will give you the means to avenge your friend. Avenge the world."

Vance nodded, despite the horrified pleas of both Claire and Hannah. A gas canister fell to the ground, and when it cleared, only they remained, cradling Jack's broken body in their arms.

That was why he couldn't hurt Starfire. She was Claire. She was Hannah. She was no more. Nothing would stand in his way any longer. Not a wretched Tameranean, not even his friends.

"Jack," Vance caught Starfire by the neck and smashed her through four solid feet of concrete. There was a dull slash, and her head fell from her shoulders, "will see his revenge."


My mind presents...

Chaos

A Teen Titans story

Written by Kieren P. McGovern (AKA Untractable Evocation, or Loki, or Fedaykin Guard).

With thanks to Corey W. Smith (Cylor) for everything he's done to help, which, trust me, is a lot.

The Teen Titans universe and all characters depicted therein, apart from those of my own creation, are the intellectual property of DC comics and Time Warner productions. The (original) characters and situations depicted within this fanfiction are MY intellectual property, and use of these characters without my expressed permission will result in serious action.