A/N: Alright, just some quick business to take care of. There has in fact been a winner for my final contest, however, they will not be announced until the final chapter.

So much happens in this chapter, really really really quickly, so pay attention or you might miss something.

Also, please don't kill me, because you're all going to want to come after me with pictures of me on wanted posters and pitchforks and torches and shrieking cries of bloody murder when you get done with this chapter.

Please have mercy on my soul.

-Ana

Just as the last of the applause dissipated, Kori tried to calmly walk off of the platform and to the girl, but just as the girl saw Kori walking towards her, she took off towards the door.

Kori knew she should get someone, tell someone that she was leaving. But she had to follow this girl.

Kori wove through the people and out of the ballroom, towards the grand staircase. As Kori turned the corner, she saw the girl at the top of the staircase dash into one of the rooms. Kori followed suit, her breath short.

At the top of the stairs, she wrenched open the closest door to find a large library with a crackling fire in the gigantic fireplace.

Kori ran to the middle of the room and looked desperately around. The girl was gone.

Behind her, she heard the door slam and she knew exactly what she had gotten herself into.

Standing next to the door was Kori Anders. And next to her was Sami Magis. And next to her was someone she'd planned on never seeing again.

She still had the same violet black hair and purple eyes, her olive complexion marred by a small scar above her left eye. That was new.

"This was a gift from some of the other inmates in Tameranean prison. Another thing I have yet to thank you for, sister."

The last time Kori had seen her sister, she was being dragged away by Tameranean guards after a huge blowout between them. Kori had won. Blackfire was supposed to be in prison, yet somehow here she was.

Blackfire strolled over towards Kori and sat down on a couch. Kori knew fighting was useless. Her powers, in their unstable condition, wouldn't stand a chance against Blackfire. In her head, she was screaming and tearing her hair out, but her face was placid.

Blackfire patted the seat across from her and Kori reluctantly sat down.

Then Blackfire gestured grandly to Sami Magis and Kori's twin in the back, and they stepped forward.

"Now, Kori, you know Sami, don't you?" Kori nodded, brows furrowed. "Yes, well, she was instrumental in this whole plot. Gosh, if she hadn't gotten me into this party I don't know what I would've done. Although I hate to admit it, this party was invitation only, and the security was stupendous. You have Bruce Wayne wrapped around your stupid little finger, don't you sister? Just like you had everyone else begging to be your friend, for you to want them in your lives. Just like mom and dad. And I sat here waiting to be noticed, but no one would ever think to look at the aggressive older sister when they had Koriand'r the angel, now would they?"

Sami was frowning, as if she wasn't sure what she was doing here, and in one swift motion, Blackfire sent a purple starbolt in her direction and knocked her completely unconscious. Kori gasped, and Blackfire turned to her, smiling maliciously.

"She was expendable. My real gratitude is truly due to this girl over here. Shift?"

Kori's twin stalked over towards the real Kori and stood in front of her, pulling off her mask.

"Ah, Kori. You've seen me in many of my forms. You saw me as this." Before her eyes, Shift's persona changed from Kori to the hunched over form of Madame Zelda. She gasped. "You've seen me as this." The man who had shot her in the bank. "You've seen me as this." The hooded figure from the alley. "Oh, but my favorite of all was probably this."

Shift changed shape once again. Kori wanted to scream. Or cry. Or vomit. All three.

This couldn't be happening to her.

Shift walked even closer to her. "Gosh, Kori you look so spicy today. Oh my gosh Kori we're doing a shoot at Avarice magazine! Kori that dress looks soooo beautiful on you." Shift, who was Dani, who was Shift scowled and Kori felt tears welling up in her eyes. "Pretending to have so few brain cells made me sick."

Kori tried to process this. She held her head in her hands and tried to calm the pounding in her head, but it was no use. Bruce had been right the entire time and she'd shot him down.

She'd been her friend.

She'd been her best friend.

She'd tried to kill her on more than one occasion.

No no no no no no no no no.

"No… you can't…" Kori mumbled this, but Shift, as Dani, walked over and bent down next to her, the Cheshire Cat smile that Kori knew so well painted on her face, and whispered.

"Oh, but I can."

Blackfire took over now. "You see, darling sister, I was very angry when I escaped from prison three days after you so unceremoniously dumped me there. So I began to plot." Blackfire stood and paced in front of Kori. "I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I didn't just want to kill you. I wanted to make you so broken that you would contemplate killing yourself." Blackfire was smiling, but all Kori could do was sit numbly as she watched the girl she thought was her best friend support her greatest enemy. "I was lucky enough to run into Kiki and Shift here, who started the ball rolling."

Dani disappeared and was replaced with a handsome face, a head of raven black hair, and malice in his eyes. "Starfire's useless. We never should've let a troq on our team."

Kori was gone. She was barely there anymore. She was stuck between two moments. In one, she saw Robin's face rewound two and a half years, calling her a troq. In the other, two and a half years forward, he was saying those things again but he or she or it wasn't Robin and what was real? Her head hurt her eyes were watering she was shaking.

She was so close to a panic attack. The drop of a nail might've sent her spiraling into nothing, trying to figure out what was real and what was a lie, a game to push her to her very limits. Blackfire wanted Kori dead, but she wanted her broken first. She wanted her to be so shattered that she would want nothing but to kill herself.

Blackfire had won. Because Kori just wanted it all to be over. Koriand'r, Starfire, Kori Anders, Catgirl. She was drowning behind the walls she had built up because she thought she wasn't wanted, but here she was, being told that she was wanted and had been tricked into making the biggest misunderstanding in her entire life.

"You looked so pathetic. Well, you put a little hitch in the plan by running away, but losing your powers was just icing on the cake. We followed you here while Kiki stayed behind, and Shift got rid of the real Dani Zurich so she could pose as your friend. We waited and waited for the right time to strike, but you only seemed to get happier while here. We had to dredge up bad memories."

Shift glanced at Kori and her face changed once again to the face of Selena Kyle. "Oh Bruce, you haven't seen Richard for so long. Don't you think it's time you reach out?"

Kori was going to throw up. This whole time, her whole life at Wayne Manor was one big plot to break her.

Blackfire continued. "So once the Titans showed up, you really started to break again. That set our plan into action. When you went to that stupid carnival, Shift took her job again."

Shift changed to the old and wrinkled façade of Madame Zelda. "You will be hurt by the one you loved the most."

Blackfire winked. "That's me by the way, not Robin like you thought. He never actually did anything to you other than say a few things that were out of frustration, but the things he'd said wouldn't make you run away. He thinks you ran away because he yelled at you after Kiki knocked you out of the sky and you ruined that whole mission. He knows nothing about what else Shift, here, said."

Kori's head was pounding. "I don't understand. Why not just kill me?"

Blackfire scoffed. "Believe me, we tried. But you are one tough nut to crack, dear sister. So we figured, why not let it be a total coup? Here's the plan. I am going to kill you. Then Shift here is going to return to the party as you, and no one will ever know you're gone. Now, that is a total emotional and physical death if I've ever seen one."

Blakfire's hands were lighting up, and she was poised to strike at Kori when thundering footsteps interrupted her.

The door was thrown out of the way by a wall of black energy, and Raven came charging through.

Blackfire frowned. "Oh, well, this won't do." Before Raven could think to react, she was knocked into oblivion by blazing purple fire, as many things happened at once. Kori was wrenched from her seated position and thrown out the window by Blackfire. The glass shattered and Blakfire flew out and caught her, flying far out towards the skyline. Then, Raven watched, her vision blackening, as Dani turned to Kori and waltzed out of the door, chandelier earrings swinging. And then all she could see was blackness.

Shift, satisfied with her job, strolled down the staircase, where Tim was standing, and grabbed his arm.

"Hey, Tim! Would you like to dance?"

Tim smiled and led her to the dance floor, past John Hopkins who spoke to her briefly in passing.

"Kori, you look lovely dear! And it looks like you won't need that second dress after all! You didn't get a drop of wine on the original. I was happy to make it of course, but I'm glad to see that it won't need to be put to use."

Dani nodded and glided away, trailing Tim, towards the dance floor.

Tim and Kori waltzed for a few moments before Tim noticed what was different.

"Where are your earrings, Kori?"

Dani tilted her head. She was wearing exact replicas of the earrings Kori had been wearing, wasn't she?

"I'm wearing them, silly."

"No, I mean the ones Selena gave you?"

Dani furrowed her brow. She hadn't been counting on this. Blackfire owed her big time.

"Uh, they were too heavy on my ears, so I switched them out for these because they are lighter."

Dani figured that was a safe answer. For all her time with Selena, she'd only ever seen her give Kori outrageous gifts, and Selena was never one for simplicity.

But Tim didn't seem convinced. He pulled away. "I'm going to go get some punch, alright?"

Tim wound his way towards the bowl as Dani shrugged and found a new dance partner.

Tim was confused. Selena had gotten Kori a pair of diamond studs. Not particularly heavy, either. So why would she say they were too heavy? It didn't make sense.

Tim figured he should retrace his steps, go back to the door he saw Kori leave. He took the stairs two at a time and stood in front of the door he'd seen Kori walk into.

Tim pushed the door open gently, and his feet crunched on broken glass. Walking farther inside, wind tickled his hair.

The gigantic floor to ceiling window in the library had shattered, and glass had blown as far back as the door, wind fiercely howling outside.

Looking down, he nearly tripped over two bodies. He felt his mind go blank as he saw Raven unconscious on the ground, right next to the stirring body of Sami Magis.

Sami Magis?

Sami woke with a splitting headache. She knew she shouldn't have ever gotten involved with that girl, Blackfire. She'd said she'd wanted to hurt Kori, and Sami knew that hurting Kori would hurt Dani.

But she didn't know hurt meant hurt. She'd never wanted this.

When she woke, she saw the hovering face of Tim Wayne far above her, and she sat up. Tim was only a bit younger than her. She was sixteen, and it had been a miracle that she'd managed to snag Ben, her ex-boyfriend, who was eighteen and rich.

And Dani went and slept with him and Sami wanted to hurt her. She'd thought that Kori and Dani were nice girls, but she was wrong about Dani. Kori, she thought, was better than that. Kori had known about Ben's cheating and hadn't said anything, and that made her just as guilty as Dani. Made her worse than Dani. She could've said that Ben was cheating and not specified who, but instead she just kept her mouth shut.

Tim helped her up, and he smiled at her. Tim had nice eyes. Actually, he had a nice face in general. Sami smiled at him, but she couldn't pull her eyes from his as he tried to ask her questions about what had happened here.

To be honest, Sami didn't know. She'd been standing in the room, just taunting Kori, when that girl, Blackfire, shot her with something that knocked her out. But she hadn't been holding a gun. It just seemed like it came from her hands, and she knew that wasn't possible. And it was purple.

That was weird.

She told Tim this, and this seemed to mean something to him, and he rushed over to the goth girl who'd been knocked out as well.

After some coaxing from Tim, she started to stir, and she sat up quickly, spouting things that didn't mean anything to Sami.

Something about stars, and fire, and Dani.

Tim and Raven raced down the halls, Sami at their heels, and found Bruce talking with Robin by the punch bowl.

Tim reached Bruce first, and he started talking at a wild pace.

"—and she knocked out Raven and Sami, and now she's taking Kori somewhere to kill her and we don't know—"

Bruce's eyes were widening, but it was Robin who interrupted. "Tim! Slow down!"

Tim breathed for a few moments and he turned once again to Bruce. "Blackfire's here. In Gotham. And she's got Kori and she's going to kill her."

Bruce looked perplexed. "But Kori's right there."

Bruce pointed to the form of his adoptive daughter, arguing with Kiki in the far corner of the room. At one time, they both turned to look at the group, and the fake Kori's eyes widened. She'd been found out.

"Wait, what do you mean Blackfire is here for Kori?"

Raven turned to Robin as Beast Boy and Cyborg came to stand next to her. "You know how Star ran away from Titans Tower?"

Robin nodded.

Raven didn't have time to think about how pissed Kori would be if she knew what she was about to do. She didn't have time to soften the blow for Robin, either. She just had to save Starfire and her chances of survival were dropping more by the minute.

"She didn't go back to Tameran when she ran away. She came here."

Raven could see the realization dawn on Robin's face. First it was astonishment, then it was awe, then it was joy, and lastly, anger. Because she had been right by him the entire month, as he spilled his heart out in the car and burst his brain trying to figure out why he couldn't stop thinking about her and she never thought it was a good idea to tell him.

"We have to find her. Let's go."

He had to find her so that if she wasn't already dead, he could kill her himself.

And then he wouldn't ever let her go again.

A/N: Let it be known that for the contest, I also have a legend of korra story in the works that is about a new avatar found in the triads, and I am pretty partial to that one myself, so...

Yeah. The winner will be announced at the epilogue so everyone has time.

So the big reveal... I have written this entire story as of now, I am just staggering it so it's not all posted at one time!

-Ana