The school day at Blackmoor High School had been over for nearly fifteen minutes, and for a certain sixteen year old raven haired junior, the wait for her best friend to show up was almost too much to bear. However, she knew that her ex-best friend, Rachelle Grace Hawthorne had probably cornered Lexie as soon as class was over, and as soon as R.G. let Lexie go, she would be here. And hopefully that time was before she needed to be at the end of Rosewood Drive to meet two of her brothers and three of her sisters.

Talia O'Malley was standing in front of her locker, finishing the pack of Skittles she had bought from the student store at lunchtime when she saw a girl with white-blond hair walking towards her with a water bottle in hand. The teen always said that she was three inches shorter than Talia's five six, but in reality, barely was five two.

"R.G.," Talia said when R.G., as the girl was known, got close to her, "Please leave Lexie out of it. She has nothing to do with anything that happened with Brandon when we were twelve." Talia knew that R.G. knew ASL, because she'd taught the cheerleader everything that she knew, but most of the time, R.G. pretended that she'd forgotten a lot of it. It was just easier to not have to sign.

"Oh, yeah?" R.G. growled, "She's your friend, Talia. That makes her a part of it whether you like it or not."

"And because she's my friend, I don't want you trying to stop her from being my friend! "

"And what will you do if I don't stop? Curse me? I don't think that's going to happen."

"No wonder Brandon left you, Rachelle. You're still just as stuck up and self-centered as you were then! "Talia could see Raven walking into the building, but she really didn't care about why the empath was there. Not when the argument was getting really personal.

"And you will never be able to fit in, no matter how hard you try, Talia."

"And besides, you are an Eco-freak!"

"What did you just call me?" Talia grabbed her pendant that was around her neck and let the magic build up inside of her. She knew one day she wouldn't need the pendant to cast any of her spells, but that day probably would never come before she graduated and started attending college.

"Enough, both of you!" Raven yelled, keeping her gaze on Talia. Then, she lowered her voice. "Talia Elizabeth O'Malley, you know the rules: You are allowed to continue to attend school here, but —" Raven was the only Titan who knew her middle name; Talia hadn't shared it with any of the original Titans, nor had she shared it with any of her teammates.

"— Don't go using my powers at school unless a super villain is attacking. I know, Raven." It was one of the conditions the original Titans had set in order for her to not to have to attend Jump City High School for Heroes. The other conditions were that Talia spend from ten to three every Saturday training with her team, that she keep her grades up and keep up with schoolwork, that she fight super villains as her availability allows and let her teammates know when she can't, and that she attend functions – like the ball during Jump City's Winter Carnival - with her teammates.

"Go home, both of you. Before you do something either of you regrets." She glared at each girl, not sure who started the fight in the first place.

"What what that about?" Alexandra Winter asked while signing as she walked up to the two heroes as soon as R.G. had left. With her rust colored hair and eyes the color of the bluebell that had been Talia's mother's favorite flower, it was no surprise that Talia had had a crush on her for several years.

'The same old stuff," Talia signed. She always felt more comfortable signing with her brothers and sisters and Lexie than she did speaking, and more often than not didn't even bother using her voice around them unless she was in class, 'You know how R.G. hates me, and she's always trying to use you to get back at me for Brandon.'

"I know," Lexie said, with a laugh as Talia hit her forehead with the palm of her hand.

'Crap. I forgot my chemistry book, and I have some stuff to look over for tomorrow's lab. Watch my bag. I'll be right back.' She set her olive green messenger bag at Lexie's feet and jogged off to retrieve her textbook. Because Blackmoor High was on a block schedule, Talia didn't need to carry all her books every day, and found that the messenger bag she'd gotten at Christmas time a couple years before work well as a school bag, and a laptop carrying case.

Talia grabbed her chemistry book, wishing she didn't have the project to work on with Lexie. After the fight with R.G., there was nothing she wanted more than to spend time with her three-month old sister, Arielle, who was more like a daughter than a sister to the young sorceress who'd had to pick up the pieces of her shattered life that horrible week in order to keep her family together. Unfortunately, their speech and debate coach had made them work on their side of a debate in partners and because Talia had been lucky enough to have to work with Lexie, she knew they would be working well into the night and there would hardly any time for her to spend with her siblings.

She ran to catch up with Lexie, who was still waiting by the office with the messenger bag by her feet. 'Before we work on the speech for debate, Lex, we should really get our regular homework done first. That way we get that out-of-the-way, and we can focus all our energy on the speech.'

'Spoilsport,' Lexie signed, as the two close friends began to walk west toward Easton Street.

For Nightmare, it was just another day in cyberspace. Until the security alarm at Blackgate Prison went off.

TEN HOURS EARLIER...

The villains gathered around the table, all arguing about who would lead the assault on Blackgate. Saw Blood watched as many of Jump City's most famous villains fought amongst themselves. He and Slade were the only ones sitting calmly. Suddenly, the blade thrower stood up.

"SILENCE!"

The other villains sat down and grew quiet. Saw Blood continued. "Slade, Insanity, and I will free the demon from his cage."

PRESENT TIME...

Nightmare watched from the screen as Insanity dropped the final guard, inserted a disk into the computer, and stood back.

FIZZZZZ-ZACOOOSH!

The figure in front of her resembled Blues, but he had green hair, pale skin, black scarf, purple shirt, black pants, and red shoes. He stood from his kneeling position, looking at her with eyes closed. About that time Saw Blood and Slade entered the room. Nightmare opened his eyes. Instantly, blood ran down to his cheeks, his eyes revealed to be black sockets with two red dots. "Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in to the monster. A little girl, a robot- wannabe, and a cyclops." He closed his eyes and laughed.

Saw blood gave Nightmare a cold glare. "Do you want to kill the heroes?" Nightmare stopped laughing, a creepy smile on his face. "When do we start?"

Outside, a black robotic blues with red eyes was listening, and gave a startled chirp. He ran out of the building as fast as he could, one thing running through his mind: "I gotta warn Blues!"

I changed the story a bit. Thanks to Emily C. Thornbrooke for writing the beginning.

Next chapter, Metal v.s. Silver Blues.