Disclaimer: You know the drill…

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Twenty-four years ago.

Deep down in the underground chamber, now lit with a rather eerie green glow thanks to all of the glow sticks spread about on the floor, the group of explores lead by the three scientists Dr. Cannes, Dr, Volkov, and Professor Chang took a good long look at their now clearly visible surroundings.

"Simply amazing," said Chang. "Can you believe this?"

"Indeed, my friend," said Volkov. "Who knows what else could lie in these depths? There has to be something else other than this chamber."

"I don't see any doors or passageways leading anywhere else. At least, none that is obvious. Why do you suppose that?"

"Maybe this chamber wasn't meant to be found. Whatever it is."

"What is it exactly?" asked their guide and escort, Evans.

"It looks like some kind of temple, or shrine. Someplace sacred. I can't tell with any certainty. What do you say, Doctors?"

"Well…" said Cannes, "let's make some observations."

Cannes took a moment to look around the room himself first to make some rudimentary theories. He searched systematically by looking in four main directions: north, east, south, then west. He took in what he saw and drew pictures in his head at what the giant chamber might have been used for when it was actually useful during whatever era that might be. He got some ideas after a minute or two of quiet contemplation.

Around him, the rest of the group also looked around but having less knowledge of such thing themselves, found there own ideas wanting. They settled on waiting for the good Doctor to finish whatever he was contemplating. Evans got a little impatient after Cannes' fourth minute of contemplation.

"Have anything yet, Doc?" she asked.

Cannes turned to all of them. "Yes, I believe I do."

Cannes turned to one side of the room. "Look there," he said, pointing to one side of the chamber which, according to the compass on his wristwatch, was the east side. "And look there," he said pointing to the opposite direction which would be the west side. The strange bunch looked in both directions as Dr. Cannes pointed out. Both sides were similar in once aspect. Standing close to the wall were three statues, making six in total for both sides, of the strange creatures that once inhabited the ancient city they were in. The statues themselves, each larger than life and looking exactly like the others, seemed to have a common theme of their own.

"Can you tell anything about those statues?" asked Dr. Cannes to everyone in general. "Anything common about them or familiar."

"Aren't those the same things we saw upstairs?" asked one of the men.

"Well, yes but take a closer look. Do they have some kind of theme? Something that distinguishes them?"

The men did so. They seemed to have found out what the Doctor was talking about. Each statue was the same a tall alien-like creature clothed in some kind of heavy looking garments that looked too heavy for everyday use. One could say that the heavy garments were some sort of body armor. It would have been logical to think it was armor as each of the creatures carried a long pole, slightly taller than the creatures themselves, which all ended in a strange oblong shaped blade. These poles would lead someone to think that they were spears o some kind.

"They're…soldiers?" said one of the men.

"Well, that's what I think," replied Cannes. "Because the creatures are sculpted all the same, I don't think they were anything special if they were alive. The creatures do seem to be holding something that's sort of a spear. Plus their clothing looks too thick to be casual. They might be some kind of warriors. Or perhaps…more specifically…guardians."

"Guardians?" asked Chang, now very interested.

"Well...Look around you some more. There" Cannes pointed to the north side of the chamber. On that side, there was an unusual structure. The entire wall that occupied a quarter of the whole space was on gigantic wall sculpture like that of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. But even the ancient Egyptians couldn't have made something like what the party was seeing. With hieroglyphics, it was a system of individual pictures to form language. But the wall was not hieroglyphics. Instead, the wall was more like an artwork, a series of drawings etched in stone as if so that the story it told would last for ages, and it did. The men analyzed the rock drawings carefully and studied what it showed knowing that the knowledge it had was thousands of years old.

There were six carved drawings in total, crafted with moderate detail but nothing artsy, designed to deliver the point at best. Cannes, after looking at the pictures and considering carefully, decided that the story started from the first scene on the left.

The first carving showed a simple scene of a number of creatures dancing around a sphere of some kind that was labeled with a single symbol that was basically two vertical lines intersected by a long horizontal line near the top and a small comma-like slash below the lower right angle created by the intersecting lines. Cannes first thought that the creatures were dancing. Or maybe they weren't dancing. Maybe they were praying, or simply there was something about that sphere that the creatures found very interesting. Or perhaps, intimidating. There was another thing that stuck out in the scene. On the upper part of the drawing, one of the creatures was dressed oddly, again the drawing was not that detailed but it was enough to distinguish it from the rest. The oddly dressed creature, a priest or something similar perhaps, raised its hands over the sphere as if it was creating the sphere.

The second drawing showed a small group of the creatures carrying the large sphere. The priest, Cannes supposed it was safe to all it that, was also in the picture, leading the people behind it to somewhere. The third drawing was a direct sequel to the second. The creatures had reached their apparent destination. The giant sphere was no in some kind of pit that, judging by the drawing, was artificially made. The priest was once again there overseeing the whole thing as it happened happen.

In the fourth drawing, the pit where the sphere was dropped was apparently sealed and the sphere now rested in its own little box of a pit. Over the pit, the creatures were celebrating but the priest kept its reserve for some reason. Maybe it didn't feel like celebrating or maybe it knew thee wasn't really anything to celebrate. In the fifth drawing, the priest was the only creature left in the scene doing some more creating. At first, one would think that the priest wasn't in fact alone, but a closer look revealed that the six other creatures in the drawing, Cannes concluded after looking several times back and forth, were being created by the priest and were too similar to the same six statues in the east and west side of the chamber they were in to be anything else. In the fifth drawing, the "guardians" were being created.

The sixth and final drawing bared no resemblance to the rest. It was a drawing of mainly a large elaborately drawn circle with nine smaller circles inside of it arranged in a 3x3 diamond grid. Each smaller circle carried inside of it a unique symbol from a language long lost to time.

"Obviously, it's trying ton tell a story," said Cannes.

Everyone nodded in general agreement but Evans, being her curious little self, had to prod. "What kind of story?"

"Look at the fist one. Those things think that big circle is very important for some reason. They took it and put it into a large pit where it stayed. To be kept safe or to make sure it can never be retrieved. Who knows exactly? Then those things were created." Cannes pointed to the six statues on either side of the loose group. "They were created as if to somehow watch over the sphere, I'm assuming it's a sphere, and safeguard it."

"Wait," called out Chang, "How do you know that these statues and those in the carvings are the same?"

"Take a look at that last drawing on the right."

Everyone did so. Cannes then promptly turned around and pointed to something in the south side of the room. "Now, take a look at that."

Everyone did an about-face and looked towards the south. One look and everyone's jaw dropped except for Dr. Cannes who had seen enough. In the south side of the room was a strange altar like structure that occupied almost a quarter of the wall. There were ornate designs that made the altar prominent. But there was one thing about it that stood out among everything else. In the center of the alter was circle with nine smaller circles inside of it arranged in a 3x3 diamond grid. Each smaller circle carried inside of it a unique symbol in the exact same design as the carvings opposite of the altar.

"Now look down," said Cannes.

They did and their jaws dropped even more. On the floor at the very center, there was one last carving of a large circle with a symbol inside. A symbol that was two vertical lines intersected by a long horizontal line near the top and a small comma-like slash below the lower right angle created by the intersecting lines, same as the once in the carved drawings. Again, Cannes was the only one among the crowed who kept his reserve.

"What does this mean?" asked one of the men.

"I think I finally know the purpose of this place," said Cannes, grabbing everyone's attention. "It's not a temple or a shrine."

Everyone took a moment for what was just said to sink in. Chang was still trying to understand. "Then what is it?"

"That sphere," continued Cannes "has a lot of importance to these creatures, some kind of treasure perhaps. So much so that they built this place to keep it safe. Keep it from being retrieved or something. This floor--" he stomped on the rocky floor, "—might actually be the vault door. Those statues--" he pointed to either side of the group, "—are supposed to be the guardians of the treasure. An finally, that thing over there--" he pointed to the large circular structure in the middle of the altar in the south side, "—is the lock."

"The lock, you say?" asked Volkov.

"A combination lock as it would seem."

"Why would there be such a thing here?" asked Evans.

"Because this place…this place is…a vault."

That took a while to sink in. The group was silent for a while. None was more intrigued than Professor Chang. "A vault?"

"A vault to keep something safe."

"What something?"

"Well…that is the question, isn't it?"

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Somewhere north of Greenland.

The T-ship cruises at a modest altitude over the desolate, icy wasteland below. All across the view was nothing but a long stretch of a desert of ice and snow. With winter close by the winds have began to pick as of late. Snow was pilling up wherever it could and temperatures plummeted. Thankfully for the Titans, the T-ship's engines are snow-proof and the interior was nor without warm air-conditioning.

"For a land named with the color green," said Starfire from her pod in the port wing, "I do not see so much of the vibrant color that I would normally associate with healthy agricultural life."

"Well, Starfire," said Robin from the bow pod, "that was kinda the point in naming this place Greenland. False advertising from the old settlers to get more people to populate here."

"I would prefer if you earthlings would be more honest with your naming of lands."

"You should see the Iceland then."

"Eh?"

The brief conversation stopped after the T-ship suddenly jolted to the right. Robin got back control immediately before he ship had a chance to crash in the ice below. In a few seconds he managed to get the ship level again. From their cockpits, Robin and Starfire looked all the way to their right to the starboard pod which Kole and Gnarrk were currently occupying.

"Sorry about that," said Kole in apology.

"Gnarrrrrk," concurred Gnarrk.

Robin let out a long sigh. "Kole, Gnarrk, make sure you guys don't touch anything while you're in there, okay? We'll be reaching the spot soon."

On the way to their destination, Robin and Starfire had decided they needed some help. The place they were going to was unknown to them and it would've been nice to have someone who did know about the place they were going to. They thought about Kole and Gnarrk who were the people who originally brought the situation to the Titans' attention in the first place. Robin decided to call them up and they were glad to help. The two Titans made a slight detour and picked up the two honoraries from their prehistoric home.

The addition of Kole and Gnarrk was a welcomed one. The Titans knew they needed all the help they could get. Though reluctant to admit it, Starfire was not to pleased with the addition even though she had nothing against the two honoraries. She just wished she had more time alone with Robin.

Back at the present a blinking light on Robin's console caught the boy wonder's attention. "Correction," he said, "we're already here."

Robin worked at the controls to slow down the ship and slowly have it loose altitude. As the T-ship descended into the thick icy mist, the four Titans looked out their special frost-proof cockpit canopies to see the emerging profile of a large hole in the ground. It couldn't be described as anything else but a large hole in the ground. Kole and Gnarrk felt some familiarity to the sight while Robin and Starfire typically regarded the cave with curiosity and suspicion.

The T-ship gently touched down some several meters away from the cave entrance. All three of the occupied canopies opened up and the four Titans jumped out. All of them stood right in front of the large cave entrance, contemplating what could be inside. Well, at least Robin and Starfire were. Kole and Gnarrk saw plenty when they were last there but felt as though they missed more.

"So this is the place?" asked Robin to the two honoraries.

"Yup," answered Kole. "This is it."

Gnarrk grunted in agreement.

"Robin took out his communicator and activated the built in GPS function. He also reached into his pocket and pulled out the photo they had as a clue which led them to this place. The coordinates on the GPS screen matched the ones written on the back of the photo. Robin wasn't surprised.

"So it is the same place, like I thought."

Kole saw the photo with the numbers and got curious. "What's that?"

Starfire moved towards Kole and Gnarrk. "It is a photo taken by the Professor Chang, I believe."

"What?"

"When you contacted us about the strange visit of Professor Chang's henchmen to this place, we immediately started an investigation. We thought it was something that wasn't much of a concern but as time progressed more, stranger occurrences have brought the Titans to consider more required actions."

"What kind of occurrences?"

"Let's just say," interjected Robin, "that way too many people are taking interest in that old man."

"Wow, this must be bigger than I thought."

"It's bigger than what any of us thought. That's why it's important we get to the bottom of this as soon as we can before all hell breaks loose. Let's go. Kole I'm counting on you guys."

"Roger that!"

With that the group trotted into the cave with Kole and Gnarrk leading the way for Robin and Starfire.

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Nine years ago.

"Why are you still here?" asked the Boy, not bothering to turn around as he stopped walking down St. Mark's square. "Why are you still following me?"

"I am not following you," said the old lady behind him.

This prompted the boy to turn around and look at the old woman disbelievingly with one raised eyebrow. "You're not following me?"

"I just happen to be going in the same direction you are."

The boy resisted all urges to pick up something and throw it at her. She had been following him for the past two days now, all throughout the city. He simply tried to ignore her at first but that became increasingly difficult by the hour as the woman was becoming more and more like his shadow. It bothered him the most when she didn't even bat an eye when he went back to the market and stole his dinner off another fruit stand. He was reluctant to do so since he knew she was right behind him the whole time but when it became necessary to steal, it freaked him out that she only smiled at him in return almost in a congratulating way.

He spent the better part of the last six hours just trying to loose her the old fashioned way: running around in random patterns in hopes of throwing her off the trail. He practically took her through a guided tour of the city by then. In the end however it was all for nothing as the old woman simply kept up with amazing vigorousness that was unbecoming of her assumed age which the boy didn't want to estimate in order not to be rude. Now, late into the afternoon, they ended up in St. Mark's Square, probably Italy's most famous spot for tourist. True enough; the place was full of tourist even in this season. People were gathered all over taking family pictures and what not.

The boy turned away from the old woman and went about in a more casual stroll. He didn't bother checking if the woman was behind him as he already knew the answer. He walked across the square for a minute or two before he realized how tired he was. Walking all over the city trying to loose an old woman was tiring indeed. He found a nice spot to sit right in front of St. Mark's Basilica which for some reason was closed off to the public that day. A sign outside that was written in Italian stated that there was some restoration work going on. He took a seat at the steps leading up the basilica and rested his head on hi knees. He felt himself drift slightly to sleep.

"Tired now are we?" said the old woman.

The boy looked up and saw that she was standing right in front of him. He didn't bother with formalities anymore. With the way she's been following him, she was as good as his mother. Not that he would know, he never really had a mother.

The boy sighed exasperatingly. "What is it exactly that you find so interesting about me?"

The old woman smiled back. "I'm just curious what a healthy young boy like you would be doing in the marketplace, stealing fruit."

"Why didn't you stop me then?"

"I was simply curious. I never said I wanted to stop you."

"What so interesting about me stealing from fruit cart. I have to eat you know."

"Of course I know. Everybody has to eat. Otherwise what are mouths for? But why steal? Why not buy the fruit instead? Lot less hassle that way."

"I don't have cash."

"Well that's not surprising. With the way you've been acting, your parents must be punishing you by taking away your allowance."

He resisted all the urges to scream at her. "I don't have parents."

"Oh really? How can you not have parents? You need them to be born. You need them to care for you."

"My parents don't give a rat's ass about me."

"Such foul language. It's unbecoming of a nice young boy like you."

He was close to loosing it. "Well, I'm not a nice young boy."

"Then what are you?"

"…Different."

"Oh, everyone's different."

"Not like me."

He was now avoiding her stare, preferring to look on the ground. He didn't want this conversation to continue. Too many bad memories. Too many of those old pains that his body just won't forget. He wanted to forget but the old woman just had to press on.

"What makes you so special?" she asked.

He glared back up at her. "I'm not special. I'm a freak! Just leave me alone!"

"You look fine to me."

"I assure you, I'm a long way from fine."

"You act as if you are the worst humanity has to offer. Why look down on yourself so much? You should be proud of the fact that you are special. Too many people are trying to be the same as everybody else even though that's impossible. You are yourself and no one else. You cannot become another. Someone as unique as you is rare and far between, my young boy."

"Proud? You don't have a clue as to what I'm going through lady!"

"Show me…"

The boy just about had enough and was already on his feet, staring down on the old woman. Just then, a man who had overheard some of the conversation and moved closer to the unusual duo. The man was standing on the boy's right less than a foot away, assuming that the boy was disrespecting the old woman in some way. With his arms crossed over his chest, the man confronted the boy.

"È ci un problema qui?" asked the man. "State causando la difficoltà?"

Without looking to his side at the man confronting him, the boy turned his entire right arm, from finger tip to shoulder, intangible and phased it through the older man's body. The boy held his ghostly arm in that position long enough for the woman to get a good look. The man, seeing the boy's hand pass right through him, began to nervously twitch before eventually loosing all his cool and running away like a scared child who had just seen a ghost.

The old woman however wasn't even bothered. "That's quite a talent you have."

The boy was stunned. Not so much at the fact that she barely blinked but the fact that she actually called it a talent.

"Talent?" repeated the boy. "How can you call this a talent? It's a freakin' curse is what it is! Because I can do something like this, everyone is afraid of me. My parents, whoever they were, were no different. They were afraid and they ditched me for it. You saw how that guy acted just now. They were all like that! Hey were all afraid!"

Again, the old woman never batted an eye. "I am not afraid."

Now he was confused more than anything else at that moment. She wasn't afraid. She even called it a talent! How could she be so calm after seeing that?

"What is it that you want from me, already?"

The old woman's face turned serious but there was still something there that resembled compassion. She didn't speak for a while. The boy waited, having little choice to do anything else. Eventually she broke her silence.

"You have to know," she said, "that you…are never alone, my boy…"

The boy was close to loosing it completely and even though somewhere deep in his mind he knew it was futile, he made one last desperate attempt to get away from the old woman. He turned around and went strait for the front doors of St. Mark's Basilica. They were closed and bolted but he kept going anyway. He could somehow sense the old woman getting ready to follow him again but it would be useless. Less than two feet from the door, his body turned completely intangible and he phased through the locked doors effortlessly leaving the old woman outside.

After phasing through the door he kept his intangible state for a while. He looked around and saw that the place was deserted. Nobody was there but him. He returned back to his tangible form. He strolled across the marbled floor of the enormous cathedral. He looked around him and saw scaffoldings that were set up so that workers could restore what needed to be worked on. No workers though. He looked up, and for a moment admired the frescos painted ages ago by the renaissance masters, at the elegant carvings of the pillars and altar. He had seen them all before, when he needed shelter from the rain that one night long ago. Now he needed shelter from everything else but the rain.

As he subconsciously drifted deeper into the interior of the basilica, his shoulder accidentally brushed the side of one of the scaffoldings and knocked a paintbrush off the edge of the wooden planks. The brush didn't fall immediately but allowed the boy to take a few more steps before hitting the marble floor with a clanking sound that echoed through the empty space. The boy turned around in surprise thinking it was another person. But it wasn't. He checked again that he was alone and indeed he was. It was just a paintbrush. There was nobody else there but him. He reminded himself that he was alone. He felt relived for a moment.

He remembered he was alone. His relief disappeared and gave way to something else. He was alone. Always alone. There was never anybody else there.

The old woman was wrong. He was alone.

He sat himself in the middle of the floor, buried his head in his knees while pulling them close with his arms, and then, knowing no one would see him, he cried.

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Jump City. Present day.

In the afternoon, what would have been peaceful day of nothing happening was once again in the habit of being broken by one of the many characters that can be found in the Teen Titans' rouges gallery. Today it was the ever loud Punk Rocket who was literally breaking the silence.

"Hahaha! C'mon, Jump City," he exclaimed at the top of his voice, "let's rock!"

While riding his guitar like a hover-board over the city streets, Punk Rocket picked at the strings that were at his feet sending a loud and powerful sound that shot straight down into the street some five stories bellow the flying guitarist. The sonic waves broke car windows, streetlamps, storefront windows, and a few eardrums. The villain was clearly enjoying himself as his laugh was the only thing louder than his music.

"Man, I love the sound of chaos!" exclaimed Punk Rocket.

"And I'd love for you to shut up."

Punk Rocket turned around to se to the familiar voice. Instead all he saw was an old empty bus flying towards him and threatening to squash him like a fly. Thinking quickly, he maneuvered his guitar and picked at the strings to send a sound wave towards the bus. The sonic impact caused the bus to disintegrate instantaneously into several bits and pieces of junk. After the destroyed bus disappeared from his view, Puck Rocket got a good look at who threw it in the first place. Not that far away were two of the Teen Titans, Raven, Beast Boy who was transformed into a Pterodactyl.

"Haven't you ever heard of the sound of silence, Punk?" asked Raven.

"Everyone's a critique," retorted Puck rocket as he got swung at the strings of his guitar once again and sent a large shockwave in Raven and Beast Boy's direction.

Raven thought fast and created a soundproof shield of black energy to block out the attack. Beast Boy took another action and swooped straight up. After reaching a certain height, Beast Boy swooped back down like a dive bomber towards Punk Rocket. The villain saw this coming and quickly adjusted his aim and strutted another loud sonic attack. Beast Boy, being mostly unprotected, took the blunt of the attack quite heavily and was momentarily stunned causing him to return back to his normal elfin self. Beast Boy would have certainly hit the pavement had Raven not caught him in a black energy disk.

"Aww, looks like the little bugger is all tuckered out," said Punk Rocket. "Well, I'd hate for you to miss my encore but I have to rock and run now. Cheerio!"

Punk Rocket promptly turned tail and rode his guitar away from the two Titans. Raven was left carrying a recovering Beast Boy in her telekinetically created disk of black energy. Below them on the street, Raven heard the familiar revving sound of the Cyborg's T-car as it raced down the street in hot pursuit of Puck Rocket. She looked towards Beast Boy was sitting up by then, rubbing his ear.

"Hey," said Raven, "Are you alright there, BB?"

"What?" he replied.

"I said "are you alright?""

Beast Boy looked at her angrily. "What about my height?"

"Can you even hear what I'm saying to you?"

Beast Boy looked at her confused. "I didn't know you had the flu. You seemed fine yesterday."

Raven sighed exasperatingly. "Never mind. C'mon let's go!"

With that, Raven shot off into the air after Cyborg and Punk Rocket. Beast Boy got the cue and transformed into an eagle and flew after her. At the same time he was also wondering why Raven wanted him to buy some play doh. Last time he used that she got angry.

Meanwhile, Cyborg was driving down the streets keeping good pace with the flying villain overhead. Punk Rocket was not oblivious to this however. He was already looking for opportunities to loose his blue and white pursuer.

"Let's see how you handle some rough waves, mate," said Punk Rocket.

He strutted the strings on his guitar and sent a shockwave straight down into the pavement. The resulting impact caused a part of the road to buckle upwards creating an asphalt wave which caught Cyborg off-guard and his T-car was up in the air before he knew it. He knew he had only the option of bailing out left. He did so and to save himself from turning into street pizza, he quickly shot off his hand like one of Robin's grappling cables where he had a cable attached to his hand and was being fed through the wrist. As Cyborg's hand managed to grab onto Punk Rocket's guitar, the T-car does a flip in mid-air and lands violently upside down causing major damage to the roof of the car.

"Awww, man," groaned Cyborg at the damage to his T-car. "You're gonna pay for that you little punk!"

"That's Punk Rocket to you, mate!"

Slowly, Cyborg started reeling his hand in getting closer to Punk Rocket. The villain decided he had other plans and flew lower to the ground. Flying less than a few feet off the ground caused Cyborg to become a very unwilling street surfer. After stumbling about on his chest and back Cyborg somehow managed to get on his feet and sort of did something that resembled bare-foot water skiing with the slight difference of it being on city streets. Spaks flew everywhere as Cyborg's alloy feet ground at the road.

"Don't think you can loose me that easily," declared Cyborg.

"I'd tell you to hang in there, mate," said Punk Rocket, "but I don't swing that way. Unfortunately for you, you're about to swing this way."

Punk Rocket made a sudden turn which caused some slack on Cyborg's line causing him to go out of control. Cyborg inevitably lipped off the road and crashed into a parked truck rather comically.

Punk Rocket laughed as he turned around for a moment to see Cyborg's almost cartoonish crash into the parked truck. His laughter stopped however as he turned back around and found himself at the receiving end of a lariat maneuver that caught his chin and flipped him off his guitar. Before he could even realize it happened, Punk Rocket was already on the street face-down, his guitar not landing too far away.

Punk Rocket struggled to get back up and once on his feet looked to where he supposed his attacker was. There stood an averaged-height young man wearing black under an unusual-looking- white jacket of sorts. Punk Rocket tried to make out the guy's face but it was being concealed by the jacket's hood which casted a shadow onto the person's identity. Punk Rocket really didn't care.

"Who ever you are, mate," said Punk Rocket a he went for his guitar and picked it up, "you just made a bloody, big-ass, mistake!"

The musical villain shot forth a strong sound wave that would've leveled a small house but the stranger suddenly wasn't eve there anymore. In the time it took Punk Rocket to go and pick up his guitar, the stranger had already disappeared and the villain had nothing to aim at.

Punk Rocket looked around confused when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and was unconscious and on the ground two seconds later.

Watcher retracted the fist he used to knock down the villain and waited patiently for an expected bunch to arrive. They eventually did. All three of the Teen Titans that remained in the city. Raven and Beast boy flew down while Cyborg was huffing and puffing all the way down the road regretting the temporary lose of his car. Watcher wondered for a moment where Robin and Starfire were but as Raven began to approach him he focused on her more than anything.

This was it, he told himself. Last encounter was not so hot, maybe now he could get started on the right foot. Maybe. Or she could just as well tear his head off right then and there. He swallowed, thankful that the hood of his jacket kept them from seeing it. The last thing he wanted was to look afraid, which he was. He opened his mouth to say something. Raven beat him to it.

"Before you say anything," said Raven, "I just want you to know that we…I…apologize for what happened last time we met."

Watcher froze. That was very unexpected. It took him a while to think up a response for that.

"I see…" he said, "that's…cool."

He promised he'd chide himself later for that response.

"Anyway, I wanted to see if we could somehow maybe have a talk, work out our different agendas. We obviously have some similar goal here and it'd better if we could work with each other rather than against each other. Though I would understand if you wouldn't want to."

There was a slight silence that went on where nobody said anything. Watcher looked at Raven and the rest of the Titans there. He studied their faces and expressions. They were honest, even slightly apologetic. They were ebing serious about this. And here he was on his way to beg for their help. The silence was eventually broken when Beast Boy spoke up.

"Ummm, Rae," he said, rubbing his ear, "can you please repeat all that. I didn't quite catch it."

Everyone stared at Beast Boy for a while.

Watcher shook his head to bring him back to the situation at hand. "Ummm…well, the thing is I was actually on my way to see you guys."

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "You were? Why, what's up, dawg."

Watcher sighed and pulled down his hood to reveal his face. "Things are getting out of hand. Now I've managed my fair share of bad situations in the past but now I've decided that I can't do this alone. I'm glad that you want to talk. We really need to talk."

Raven could see where this was going. "So what you're saying is…"

Watcher nodded. "I'm asking you for your help…"

Watcher kept as friendly a face as he could without looking needy. Raven thought about it and decided that he was being as honest as he could. She also already decided that, even though he was a stranger, he was an outsider, he was not a bad guy. At least for now that was her decision. Time would reveal truths. It always did. But now there was something bigger than either of them and they had to focus on the present. She nodded towards him to signify her agreement to him and she could see that there was significant relief in his expression.

She'll wonder whether she made the right decision later. For now she…they, had a job to do.

"Hey! What makes you think you can say my hair looks like kelp?" Beast Boy exclaimed.

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Author's note: Sorry for the late update. Just wanna say that I hope you guys had a happy Easter. Well, take care and please R&R!