"Being a superhero is not your true calling, Bard. You are a man of God. And thus, it is your responsibility to look over his children." - Brother Blood

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

BLOOD

"My name," the saintly old man introduced himself. "Is Brother Blood."

Bard blinked.

"Blood?" Starfire blurted out apprehensively in surprise.

Brother Blood chuckled softly.

"Oftentimes I am met with that same reaction." He smiled gently at her. "I am from a long line of Brother Bloods." He explained. "The very first was…an evil man before he found his way. It was he who earned the name 'Blood'."

"He was also the most powerful of all the Bloods." The young, pale haired teenager added quickly.

Brother Blood's blue eyes flickered slightly with annoyance.

"Sebastion," he said to the young man. "I'm sure our guests' journey was fatiguing. Go fetch them some water."

A barely visible sneer appeared on Sebastion's face, but he nonetheless bowed curtly and exited the building.

"Now, friends." Brother Blood said after he had left. "Please sit yourselves. There is no need for formality."

Zillah sat beside Starfire on the low divan, and Brother Blood lowered himself in the chair across from Bard.

"You must forgive my son. He sometimes speaks without thinking. Now," Brother Blood continued once he had settled himself. "I'm sure you must have some questions…"

"How long have you been here?" Bard asked promptly, taking advantage of the opportunity.

"My four predecessors preached from here for exactly five hundred years, tomorrow."

Bard brow furrowed. His math wasn't the best in the world, but…

"Tell me, do Terrans normally have century long life spans?" Starfire was obviously already ahead of him.

"Ah, your mind is quick." Brother Blood smiled approvingly at her. "No, humans do not normally live so long. However, my predecessors and I have had some help. This robe in which I wear is rumored to be the funeral shawl of Christ. Whether that is true or false, I cannot say. However, it lengthens it's wearer's life span and sometimes gives him other abilities."

Bard stared at the robe a bit harder. Somehow, he had the ability to recognize holy things, and the proof of that was in the cross pendant around his neck. He felt something from the shawl…but what it was exactly he could not say. He did, however, find it hard to believe that it had been worn by Christ.

"Actually," Brother Blood continued. "Our life spans would be even longer if it wasn't for the curse." He added ominously.

"Curse?" Bard mimicked. "What kind of curse?"

"It-" Brother Blood cut himself off immediately as Sebastion reentered the room with two wooden cups of water, which he silently handed to Bard and Starfire.

"Brother Blood," Bard repeated politely after nodding his thanks to Sebastion. "What kind of-"

"Of that I will inform you later." The old man said quickly. As he said it, he cut his blue eyes toward Sebastion for the briefest of seconds. It was hardly noticeable, but Bard caught it. He had a sneaky suspicion that, whatever this whole curse thing was about, it involved the young man somehow.

There was an awkward silence in which Sebastion looked up at his father suspiciously.

"Forgive my abruptness," Brother Blood said finally. "But my birthday is tomorrow and I must make preparations."

"Happy Birthday," Bard told him.

"….Yes, you have my thanks." Brother Blood's eyes looked a little troubled. "Zillah," he said, turning to the girl. "Perhaps our guests would enjoy a tour of our home here?"

"That would be most wondrous!" Starfire gushed approvingly.

Bard wasn't sure how he felt about that. Brother Blood was a charismatic and kind man, and it seemed as if he already had Starfire completely enthralled. But then again, Star had always seen the good in people long before examining their faults. He had yet to do anything incriminating, but Bard decided to still keep his guard up.

"Very well," Brother Blood approved. "When you have finished, Zillah, please bring Bard to come speak to me."

Zillah bowed in acceptance and the saintly old man and his son Sebastion quietly left the building.

No matter who built this subterranean city, Bard had to admit to himself that it was incredible. The architecture was alien, and it was simple and profound at the same time. The walls of all the building were all falling down against each other. But since they were all falling against each other at the exact same angle, the buildings were surprisingly secure structures. It also made each building look strangely like a tent.

There were a few people out and about now, but they were few and far between. Every single one of them wore white linen, quite similar to what Sebastion was wearing. Bard wondered why Zillah was the only one to wear a different color, but he decided not to ask her about it.

Also, in certain places within the small community Bard could still hear the echoes of the hymn he had heard sung earlier. The song was discordant, but it was still beautiful nonetheless.

"The hymn never really dies." Zillah told him when he commented on it. "It is sung each hour, and the echoes of the caves keep it alive."

"How do you live down here?" Bard asked her. "What I mean is…where do you get your food and water?"

"There is an underground river that runs not far from here." Zillah explained. "And foragers and hunters go above ground at night for food."

"A river which flows beneath the earth, truly?" Starfire asked with the enthusiasm of a child. "I have never seen such."

"I could show you, if you desire." Zillah offered.

"That would be most wonderful!"

"You two go ahead," Bard told them, smiling at Starfire's joy. Only she could find happiness out of looking at a river. "I'm gonna rest here for a second."

Zillah studied him for a moment, but the she nodded.

"Very well," she agreed. "We will be back shortly."

When they were gone, Bard sat down on the ground and leaned his back against the closest building he could find. Brother Blood seemed like a nice enough person, despite his name. But in retrospect, the saintly man had yet to really tell him anything. He figured the man would get down to business once Zillah had finished showing them around. He had asked to see him alone then, after all.

Suddenly, Bard jerked his head up out of his thoughts. It had gotten…quiet, all of a sudden. Sure, the place had been quiet before, but there had still been the murmur of the hymn and the slight scrapping of sandals against rock. The cowboy climbed to his feet and walked to the center of the street, looking around suspiciously.

Then, as silent as smoke, black robed figures emerged fluidly from the shadows, all of them armed with stone maces. Bard's hand flashed down to his laser pistol, but he stopped himself. The figures surrounding him looked almost like ninjas, but the lower half of their masks were open, revealing the fact that they were human. Bard had no qualms about using his pistol against Slade's robots…but real people? True, a laser shot from it at close range hadn't killed him, (Kitten had proved that), but then again, he wasn't exactly your run of the mill average joe. And the fact that the were human also eliminated his powers, as he was sure throwing a lightning bolt at one of them would probably be fatal.

"Leave this place," one of them told him, evidently the leader. "And we will cause you no harm."

That gave Bard a spark of hope. They didn't really want to hurt him. But then again, he thought with a frown, their idea of not hurting him involved bashing him over the head with stone maces…

"I can't do that." Bard replied to the leader.

"You have one more chance to reconsider."

"…." Bard's answer wasn't going to change.

Silence fell between them, and Bard knew that the time for talk was over.

The leader charged at him first, his mace held high over his head to smash down onto Bard's skull. But Bard caught his wrist and blindly directed a reverse kick behind him. Bard's cowboy hat came off of his head, but he didn't have time to worry about that just now. His cowboy boot smashed firmly into the chest of another black robed attacker.

"Oof!"

Next, Bard spun and wrenched the leader's arm so hard that he flipped forward and landed painfully on his back. Bard was kicked in the chest, but he retaliated immediately as he threw a big punch at the black robed attacker. The man held up his mace to block the attack. But the adamantine knuckle that covered Bard's fist smashed right through the mace, reducing it to dust and rubble, and connected solidly with the man's jaw.

Bard blinked as the man went down for the count.

"Whoa," he marveled, just as surprised as his victim as he looked down at the metal that incased his knuckles.

Another attacker took advantage of the cowboy's momentary distraction and arced his mace at his head. Bard ducked under the wide swipe, but the robed man had swung so hard that it spun him halfway around to where his back was facing the cowboy. Taking a move directly from the pro wrestling he used to watch so much, Bard gripped the man around the waist, popped his hips, fell backwards and flung him over his head as hard as he could. The attacker flew through the air and collapsed into two more of his accomplices.

His adrenaline pumping hard now, Bard catapulted himself back to his feet…just in time to get smacked in the forehead with a mace.

WHAM!

The cowboy's blue eyes half glazed over and he stumbled back on rubbery legs. The guy that had whapped him over the head raised his mace again, ready to deliver the knockout blow…

ZAF!

A fiery green star bolt hit him in the chest and he was flung back several feet like a rag doll, the mace falling uselessly from his hands. Sure enough, Starfire hovered above them like a furious goddess with her red hair streaming and her eyes and hands glowing green with energy.

"Retreat!" One of the black robed men barked out. It was probably the leader, but with all the commotion going on, Bard wasn't sure. The attackers disappeared as quietly as they had appeared, dragging their unconscious buddies with them. Starfire moved to go after them.

"No," Zillah stopped her. "Let them go."

"But they must be apprehended and taken to the jail!" Starfire insisted.

"We have no such place here within our community."

"Then-"

"They cannot be taken to the jail of your city either, for they would reveal the location of this place. It is best to let them go."

Starfire looked disappointed, but then she turned to Bard.

"Are you damaged?" She asked worriedly.

"I'm fine," Bard assured her. But he swayed just slightly as he walked over to his hat. He scooped it up, wiped it off a bit and replaced it back on his head before turning to Zillah. "Okay," he said. "Who were those people and why do they want me to get out of Dodge?"

"They are a renegade faction within our community." Zillah explained. "They do not agree with out master on theological grounds, so they decided to sink back into another cave and start a new community. That is all the knowledge I possess of them. They are quite mysterious. We do not even know whom their leader is."

"All right, that answers the 'who' part." Bard admitted. "But what about the whole 'me getting out of Dodge' part?"

"Yes," Starfire seconded. "Why would these men wish to attack friend Bard?"

"That is a question you must ask my master." Zillah told him. "Now, I must take Koriand'r to suitable quarters and then I shall escort you to him."

Bard cocked an eyebrow under his hat, and regretted it as soon as he did it. Pain laced through his head from the mace shot earlier. Luckily, he was able to conceal it from the two girls.

"Who?" He asked. "Who is, er, Kor-ran-door?"

"Koriand'r," Starfire corrected him in a soft voice. "That-that is my true name."

"I apologize." Zillah told the Tamaranean. "Did you wish to keep your identity a secret?"

"I-I suppose not." Starfire answered her. "Your revelation…simply surprised me."

"Don't worry about it, Star." Bard put a comforting hand on her shoulder and winked at her, which caused another bolt of pain to shoot up into his head. "You know my real name, right?"

Starfire locked eyes with him and, after a moment, she smiled.

"That is true, isn't it?"

"Sure it is, we-"

Zillah cleared her throat.

"It is time for us to be on our way." She said to them curtly.

Bard nodded at her and removed his hand from Starfire's shoulder. He did notice, however, that Zillah placed herself firmly between him and Starfire as she led them. He couldn't see the mystic's face, but he would have bet his bottom dollar that it was tinted green.

Raven, to put it mildly, was not in a good mood. Perhaps fifteen minutes after leaving at her half brother's request, she returned to the roof to check up on them…Only to find that Bard, Starfire and the pretentious, purple robed brat were gone. At first she thought that perhaps there had been some foul play on the behalf of Zillah, but she quickly disregarded that theory. Both Bard and Starfire were very capable fighters, and even if Zillah could overpower the two of them somehow, the affair certainly would not have been an quiet one. So the only reasonable explanation was that Starfire and Bard had left with her willing. And that thought set Raven's blood to boiling.

Starfire was supposed to contact her via communicator if something came up, but Raven didn't blame the naïve, emotional redhead. The subterfuge, she was sure, had been entirely the doing of her no good brother. Starfire would never hide anything from her…but Bard certainly would.

But that wasn't the only thing that infuriated her as she floated down the hallway in Titans Tower. Zillah had insulted her before. That hadn't really bothered her, since she saw the girl as simply an delusional, religious fanatic. What had bothered was the fact that Bard hadn't defended her in the slightest. True, Raven admitted to herself, she probably didn't need his help, but his silence had given the impression that…he had actually agreed with her!

Raven shook her head stubbornly. She couldn't allow herself to grow close to anybody, not even her own brother. So, obviously, she didn't care what Bard thought of her. She didn't care.

She didn't care.

She didn't care.

She didn't care!

POP!

Cyborg and Beast Boy came around the corner of the hallway at that exact moment, and the former was holding a popped basketball.

"Aw, man!" Beast Boy whined. "You ruined the basketball, Raven!"

"Sorry," she muttered, though she didn't put much feeling into it. Instead, she was concentrating mostly on continuing down the hallway and getting away from the two of them as quickly as possible.

"Hey, Raye!" Cyborg called after her. "Me and Beast Boy were thinking 'bout asking Bard if he wanted to play some ball. You don't know where is, do ya?"

As if an invisible wind had somehow picked up out of nowhere, Raven's hair spun and fluttered about her face.

"Dahhhhhh!"

"Ahhhhhhh!"

CR-CRASH!

Beast Boy and Cyborg were blown back by an explosion of dark energy and hit hard against the wall of the hallway. After shaking the cobwebs out, they looked up and stared, dumbfounded, at Raven.

"…."

"…"

"….Don't ever call me 'Raye'."

"Please Bard, seat yourself." Brother Blood told him after nodding Zillah away.

The two of them were in Brother Blood's house, which sat on an island in the middle of an underground lake. The house was built with the same architecture as the rest of the small city, but it was made out of smooth, glossy limestone. Alien, to be sure, but beautiful all the same.

"I was attacked, you know." Bard tried to say as nonchalantly as possible after taking his seat.

Brother Blood didn't look surprised at all at that. Instead, he simply shook his head regrettably.

"I was afraid that might happen." He said. "However, you are quite the warrior, so I felt I had no need to worry for you safety."

"Thanks, a lot." Bard muttered dryly under his breath, but then he got down to business. "Zillah told me they were renegades that started a new community down her because they didn't agree with you on religious matters. Is that right?"

"It was closer to a political matter." Brother Blood corrected. "But besides that, what you say is the truth."

"What's the big disagreement?"

"It mainly has to do with how we treat nonbelievers." Brother Blood explained. "My sect simply attempts to convert them. Theirs, however, wish but to exterminate them."

Bard's eyes widened.

"So that's why they attacked me?" He asked. "Because they thought I was an nonbeliever?"

Brother Blood shook his head.

"I am afraid not, Bard." He answered. "They wished to expulse you because…of my plans for you."

Bard's eyebrow shot up again and, once again also, pain laced through his head. He had to stop doing that…

"And what are your plans for me?"

"I suppose now is as opportune a time as any to tell you." Brother Blood admitted. "My son, Sebastion, is not fit to lead my people when I am gone, and I am afraid I will not be around much longer."

Bard's eyes narrowed slightly.

"You're sick?"

Brother Blood shook his head.

"It has to do with the curse." He said sadly. "Before each Brother Blood's one hundredth birthday…he will be killed by his son."

Bard let out an involuntary gasp.

"However," Brother Blood continued. "It is almost always an accident. That is why I did not wish to tell Sebastion about it. I do not want him to feel guilt."

"So why can't Sebastion rule here when you're gone?" Bard wanted to know.

"His faith…is twisted. He feels that subverting nonbelievers should not be a subtle thing. Also, he also yearns to establish a settlement in the world above. Both of those things go against what this community stands for."

"All right. Who's going to rule when you gone, then?"

Brother Blood simply looked at him calmly.

"…."

"…"

"…"

"…You've got to be kidding!" Bard burst out. "I'm a superhero! I don't have time for-"

"Being a superhero is not your true calling, Bard." Brother Blood said to him gently. "You are a man of God. And thus, it is your responsibility to look over his children."

Bard slid his shaded glasses off his face and wearily rubbed the bridge of his nose. All of this was coming too fast…

"So…the prophecy about Raven was something to simply lure me here?"

"In part, perhaps." Brother Blood replied. "There is no prophecy. However, my people have long suspected that Raven may well indeed be the accursed one." He paused. "My people need a leader, Bard. Someone young, intelligent, charismatic and faithful. I believe that person should be you."

"I…" Bard floundered. " I need some time to think about it."

"Or course," Brother Blood agreed quickly, standing up. "I'm sure this is coming at you as quite a shock. I'll have Zillah escort you back to your building. Keep in mind, though, that my one hundredth birthday is tomorrow."

Bard felt a chill as he left Brother Blood's abode.

That evening, Brother Blood sat in a wooden tub of warm water, his shawl draped over a chair and multicolored curtains hung up around him to maintain his privacy. Suddenly, Brother Blood stopped washing himself and jerked his head up.

"Who's there?" He called out sharply, but then his voice relaxed. "Oh, it's you. What do you need-"

A knife flashed as it arced downward. As the last vestiges of life left Brother Blood's body, the water in which he sat began to turn crimson. The murderer walked out calmly, but he did not leave alone.

He took the reputed shawl of Christ along with him.