AN: Well… its a filler. The end is in sight, though I image most of you are still in the dark to the grand scheme. I've been trying to drop hints without actually telling you all anything. So anyone got any guesses as to how its all going to go down? I'd like to see where the audience is at in the plan. So review away.

Alienvspredator5- It has been some time hasn't it? I tell you it's just been difficult to find any inspection lately. Well, Blood is still at large and Jake still in the dark so we'll see what happens. Thx for reviewing.

DonCossak- Glad to know I did good and it's great to hear I've still got you on the line. And I hope this is enough for you, feels longer but who knows? Enjoy the show and thx for the reviews.


An ice white haired woman sat at a computer screen, her eyes blinking back and forth between a camera and the document held in her hands. "So… Mathews is a dead end." She reported, "Sample is incomplete and what's there is contaminated." Her free hand clicked a few keys and sent a finished report to the people on the line. "Agent Artemis is formulating a plan to infiltrate the facility but we may need to enlist the assistance of the local vigilante group, The Teen Titans, as they refer to themselves."

A distorted voice crackled through the speakers, "We copy. Your cooperation with the Titans should remain a possibility but do not feed them any unnecessary information. The details of your assignment and any materials seized from the Hive facility are to remain completely confidential."

"Acknowledged, will keep you informed as the situation develops."

"Good, On a final note, Artemis' report mentioned Hive interest in one Jake Cameron Arius. Do we have any details of his involvement?" The voice questioned.

The woman flipped through a few pages before reading them over as she answered. "Negative, as far as we've been able to determine Arius is just another pawn in Blood's scheme. Official reports have him listed as KIA two times in the past few months. Beyond that his development of Meta traits is of some concern but weather or not that is linked to the Hive is uncertain at this time."

"Put out some feelers and keep an eye on him, likely nothing of concern but we must be ready for anything this late in the game."

"Will do, Agent Sylvia signing off." The woman keyed a few commands into the laptop and the feed was cut. She closed the screen and took in the spacious apartment they'd set up in. It was a penthouse suite, monstrous glass windows opening the view out over the city. In the distance was the bay and the all to familiar T shaped tower that had become the emblem of Jump city. The apartment itself was fairly plain though, a result of their constant movements and reassignments. Other than the small trinkets they packed away and the set-up of communications and surveillance equipment the place was as untouched as the day they'd moved in.

That wasn't to say it was unfurnished though. The room she sat in now, a cross between the dinning and living areas, was very nice indeed if she did say so herself. Hardwood floors, covered by an area rug in the living room, the Oak table at witch she sat was elegant in its simplicity, and the couches centered around a glass coffee table in the living area held a certain… class that wasn't unpleasing to the eye. Beyond that the bedroom was dominated by a queen sized bed and two end tables that held the only personal possessions either of them held on to. Namely pictures and trinkets of sentimental value, nothing that would compromise them if found but things they felt were worth holding on to. And finally, off the bedroom was what may have been an office space was now a server room to put NASA to shame. Flatscreen monitors formed a wall, two screens high and three wide, angling slightly on the outside to allow constant observation without too much repositioning on the behalf of the operator. The server towers were set to the sides of the main monitor set-up and the whole system doubled as a cyberwarfare suite if the operator was trained for such.

That room was what compromised them the most, and thats also why the whole room was rigged with explosives, in the event they had to leave in a hurry with property wiping the computers the whole floor was in for quite a wakeup call.

It was then that her roommate decided to make herself seen, walking from the bath wearing nothing more than a towel. Her blue hair was tangled and sticking to her face but she still retained some sense of beauty. Though at times she joked of robbing the cradle, Artemis was in fact only a year and two months younger than her 17. She just kept the appearance of someone much younger. Something about her meta genes affecting her metabolism or something. "Artie, you still haven't told me how we're supposed to recruit the Titans."

The blue haired woman looked back over her shoulder from where she was currently digging through the fridge, "I thought you'd come up with something by now." A few more seconds of rummaging and she emerged from the refrigerator, apple in hand. "But if you insist, I suppose I'll ask them."

"You'll ask them?"

Artemis grabbed a knife and carved out a wedge of apple, "Yes I'm going to stroll up to their door and ask them to help us out."

"Seriously?" Sylvia leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. "That's your plan? You do realize that you were torturing one of them not so long ago." She stated matter-o-factly.

Artemis sighed, "Fine, I'll ask real nice like. Besides, it's not like there's any lasting damage, he's fine. Hell, he looked like he was enjoying it as much as I was."

"Your one sick puppy, you know that Artie?" Sylvia chuckled.

"Yes but I'm your sick puppy Silver."

Sylvia stood and walked over to where Artemis had propped herself up against the wall. Patting the top of her head as one would a pet she responded, "That you are. Now if you wouldn't mind, think up a plan that doesn't involve suicide by Titan."

Artemis rolled her eyes, "Yes master."


The stars shinning out of the Eastern sky, something Raven always found herself in awe of. Looking out over the open ocean, seeing the night sky lit up like so. It was something so beautiful to her, so exotic, foreign. In Azarath there were no stars of the evening sky.

Back home, there were bands of light that illuminated the night, phenomenon known as the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights here. They stretched across the horizon, dancing in the high altitude until the sun reclaimed the sky for another day. And it was wonderful, but as brilliant as it was it couldn't hold a candle to the view before her now. Blips of light thousands upon thousands of Lightyears away, decorating the night sky.

Yes this was something she enjoyed, seated on the Tower's rooftop, back against one of the massive air conditioning ducts, sent of salt on the air and the only audible sounds were the waves breaking over the rocky shore of the beach below her. But today was special, as now she had a companion with witch to share her down time with.

Who was this mysterious stranger who's arms she was now entwined in. Why none other than Jake Arius, looking out past the horizon. Here nothing else mattered, Jake wasn't a timebomb and she wasn't torn between reason and love. They simply were. And it was in times such as these that she found she could truly let her walls down without fear of the repercussions. "Jake?" She prodded.

He blinked a couple times, like he had just been awoken "Mmmh?" And he spoke as if he'd just woken up as well. Sometimes she wondered exactly what was constantly dragging him that deep into thought. She didn't want to invade his mind again, it was just wrong but every time she asked he'd either deflect or he'd ramble about exactly what was on his mind and she'd not get a damn thing from him either way.

"I was wondering, when this is all over with the Hive and Blood-" he tensed at the mentiob of that name "- if you'd want to see my home. I haven't been back in so long and I just have started to realize what really is important to me. My family there, they haven't seen me since I came to Earth and I'd like it if you went with me."

Jake's gaze left the horizon to meet her eyes, "That's a wonderful idea, I never did get a chance to say my goodbyes to Rorix and Arella."

Raven smiled as she remembered her old friend, "You should've seen us back in the day, when I outgrew the monastery he was among the few that actually accepted me. Hell he even stood up to a mob of torch and pitchfork wielding villagers for me."

Jake was truly surprised at that "Pitchfork mobs? Do tell."

"Long story, but it was one of the reasons I had to leave for Earth in the first place." She responded dejectedly.

"Sorry to hear that, but in any case I'll be looking forward to seeing where you hail from." His hand trailed down her arm to interlace his fingers in hers, cold as they were she decided she wouldn't have had it any other way. Everything was perfect.

And for once in her life, it stayed that way. No alarms sounded, no one was attacking the tower, it seemed as if the universe had taken mercy on the two for the day.

Robin meanwhile turned off the security feed from the rooftop cameras. It would seem as if Jake's recent lapse was an isolated incident. And who knows, maybe he really was trying. But Robin didn't just take action on maybes, and he wasn't about to risk another incident without absolute certainty that Jake was five by five.

With the day wrapping up quite nicely he turned his attention to the parcel he'd received earlier that day. It was a standard USB flash drive, nothing special about it. Came out of a brown envelop, addressed specifically to him. No return address, not a finger print on anything. Hell the thing was too clean for its own good, not a shred of anything on it. It's as if it was mailed out of a clean room.

But come to think of it the person who'd delivered it was different from the usual guy. At the time it was irrelevant, Joseph, the usual man, was away as he'd said he would be the other day and the new girl's ID checked out. But now it was beyond coincidence, something was wrong here and he wouldn't fall for something so obvious.

Times like these he was happy that he had a friend that was an absolute tech genius. He opened a drawer on a filing cabinet and withdrew one of Cyborg's oldest toys he'd crafted at the boy wonders request. It was a simple laptop computer, with several hundred anti-hacking measures in place. Cy had also removed any sort of wireless network receivers and transmitters. The entire unit was isolated from the world. The thing was even wired with a pulse scanner, if any abnormalities were found in the users chart while a video or audio file was running the screen and speakers were set to fry. All in all it was designed for exactly what he was about to do.

But upon opening the laptop something happened, or rather didn't happen. The screen was still dark even after several attempts to turn it on with the damnable switch. He put his gloved hand to his chin as he tried to diagnose the problem. Several seconds ticked by as he counted all the various possibilities of what could be wrong with the device until process of elimination left him exactly back where he started. Then like the fist of an angry god it hit him. "Damn batteries."

Many a minute later if searching later and all was back on track. As soon as the drive was slotted the autorun programs took over and opened a video file. But before it could play a panel opened below the keyboard letting a red light shine through. A message took the screen over-

Place wrist over the scanner and remain still.

He rolled back his sleeve and did as he was told.

Scanning..

The screen unlocked and a the video started playing. On screen was the face of a girl with extremely white hair. She obviously wasn't concerned about concealing her appearance. That in itself said something, either she was an amateur. Witch was unlikely considering how clean the envelope was and the fact that any amateur wannabe crook could've gotten their hands on a video editor that blurred their face. So that left the other option, she didn't care. She didn't consider him enough a threat to hide her features, she was already calling him out without even speaking a word to him. "Robin-" well not exactly a wordless challenge "-I've come to understand you are currently undergoing an investigation outside the normal channels into the organization known as The Hive." The woman faded from the screen as another picture filled the window. "Sean Mathews." The picture was taken at the scene where his body was recovered. "An unfortunate victim of a Hive cell operating out of Jump City. He's currently still being held by the DMC, but I've come to possession of several autopsy reports and test results. The findings are most concerning. I've also come to possess the location of the Hive Cell believed to be responsible for his augmentation." The view changed back to the white haired woman. "Attached are a set of coordinates in the desert south of Jump. Meet me there at 17:00 hours in two days time so that we may negotiate something of a mutualy beneficial partnership. Bring your team or come alone, it matters not. My only condition is that your recent addition, Arius, remain unaware of this transaction. This is nonnegotiable. We hope to see you there Robin."

The window exited and a string of numbers pointing out a precise location on a corresponding map that was also displayed. Just as the white haired had said, a simple rock formation in the middle of nowhere, the towering boulders concealed a small niche that all but prevented observation from afar. He knew where it was, and wasn't tired in the slightest.

He wanted to check it out, and he knew she knew he would. And then there was the fact she knew Jake. Those two had a history, he could feel it. 'Damn it, this shit used to be easier. Find bad guys, kick butt, rinse and repeat.'

"The hell with it. Not like I can't handle myself." And with that statement he clipped on his cape and set off for the garage. There was something up here and he'd find it like he always did.


AN: All in all this chapter felt meh at best. What do you all think? Drop me a line why don't ya?