A/N:Because of length, this chapter is split into two parts to make it easier to read. The second part posted tomorrow.
Also, as a note, I've actually never watched the early 2000's Teen Titans cartoon (not sure how that happened, I've been meaning to watch it for years). As a result, characterizations and story arcs are based largely on their comic book counterparts rather than the show.
Last, I promise I'm really trying not to character bash any characters (except I suppose villains). However, some characters will be in ideological opposition to others without being inherently "bad" or villainous characters.
Ages for Main Characters:
Dick Grayson (Nightwing): 16
Roy Harper (Red Arrow): 20
Donna Troy (Troia): 17
Garth (Tempest): 18
Jade Nguyen (Cheshire): 21
Zatanna Zatara: 17
Raquel Ervin (Rocket): 18
Barbara Gordon (Batgirl): 16
ooooooo
It's nearly dawn when Barbara and Dick stumble back to the cave, practically collapsing.
"Dick," Barbara groans from the computer chair, "tell me that was the last one. Please, tell me that was the last one."
Laying on the floor, because Dick gave up silly things like propriety four hours ago, he checks his wrist computer. "Yep, last of the Blackgate escapees are officially back in their cells."
"Finally. And they better stay there and not plan a breakout for at least another six months or so help me, Dick, I'm throwing Warden Strange into a cell next to them."
He grunts in agreement, focusing instead on the feeling of the cool cave floor on his back. Why don't they have comfier seating in the cave? Probably a ploy from Alfred to get them to spend more time in the actual manor.
"I don't think I'll be able to feel my arms for days."
He hums. "Yeah, we should probably double our strength training. Maybe endurance, too."
"Dick," comes Barbara's muffled warning from where her head's laid on the desk, "let me have this. We can talk about various training regimen changes in the morning." A pause. "Later in the morning, I mean. What day is it?"
"Thursday. Breakout was three days ago," he answers, feeling absurdly glad it's summer and they don't have to manage school on top of this.
She murmurs something in response, already sounding half asleep and he smiles, feeling bizarrely at peace as he relaxes against hard stone. There's an odd sense of reflection only attained by those not quite yet asleep. Strange stretched out moments where current worries are set aside and the brain goes deeper to the things no one ever has time for when awake.
Dick thinks about time.
It's been a year and a half since Barbara officially became Batgirl. She's better now, faster, more dangerous. Dick's not as afraid every time they leave for patrol even if he doubts the fear will ever go away completely. With the exception of a few training sessions, Babs is still firmly refusing the offer to join the Titans. She says Gotham's where she's needed and, well, she's not definitely not wrong. The city's come to know her just as well as they do Dick-maybe even more so since he still gets called 'Robin' half the time instead of 'Nightwing'. Barbara's always been amazing; but, as Batgirl, she soars.
Dick's just happy to fly beside her.
The Titans, meanwhile, are a month away from their second anniversary, which still feels too big and too strange to fully accept yet. They're amazing. They're so amazing and Dick is so, so lucky that he still has them, that he can count them as teammates as well as friends. And, sometimes, in the quiet time in between seconds when he's just sitting in the Tower and watching, he allows himself to wonder what his old team would've thought if they could see them now? He hopes….he hopes they'd be proud.
Time is a weird thing.
Dick is sixteen years old. He's been Nightwing, partners with Batgirl, for eighteen months. He's led the Titans for twenty-three months.
And it's been thirty-three months and ten days since the invasion. Three months shy of three years.
Come to think of it, there'll be another memorial anniversary soon. He'll probably have to speak at it. They always ask him, for some reason. He's not sure why. He still doesn't know what to say.
The cave computer and the one on his wrist buzz simultaneously with an alert, probably for the best judging by the direction of his thoughts. Barbara jumps awake in the chair, barely keeping from unbalancing.
"What is it," she asks, groggily. "Not another breakout. Please, say it's not a breakout."
"Not another breakout," he says, pulling up the report. "An alert from the Watchtower space station."
"I thought that was shut down."
"The sensors are still functioning," he answers as he begins reading the report. There's a picture.
His blood freezes.
"I'm calling in all the Titans," Dick says, already up and grabbing more batarangs. "Babs, I need you to stay here and do a world wide scan for news reports. Anything, anything unusual, send out an immediate alert."
Barbara's fully awake now. "What's wrong, Dick?"
"According to the report, a small comet just broke Earth's atmosphere and is set to land in an isolated stretch of Yellowstone Forest."
"A comet? That doesn't sound too bad."
"Yeah, but this doesn't look like a comet." Dick holds out his computer to show Barbara.
The picture's grainy, taken from one of the Watchtower's old surveillance cameras and of an object going at a high velocity. What is distinguishable is a circle too flat and smooth to be a comet with metal wings sticking out from the side.
An alien ship.
The first one since the invasion.
ooooooo
There is a palpable tension in the air as the team makes their way through the forest, closing in on the newly landed ship.
"Maybe they're friendly," Raquel suggests quietly, "like Superman or the Martians."
Based on the speed and last known coordinates, the ship made land ten minutes ago in a valley just further down. Ten minutes can be a very long time. During the invasion, ten minutes saw a tenth of the League dead-more members than the current entirety of active heroes.
"Maybe," Dick allows but no one, including Raquel, makes any move to relax their guard.
"And if they're not friendly," Jade asks, tone expressionless.
"If they're not friendly…" He hesitates before saying what they're all thinking. "We can't withstand another invasion. If they move to attack, we don't have the option to retreat. We hit them hard here, contain the risk before it even has a chance to move on to civilian areas."
Grim acceptance meets the order.
Donna moves to cover his back. "What's our plan of action if they have zeta rays like before?"
"Move. Remember never try to block them. Don't forget evasion training. Dodge them and keep moving until one of us is in position to take it out."
He shares a look with Roy. He and Roy are the team's best at long distance attacks. If it comes down to it, they'll be in charge of taking out the weapon.
That's all the time they have before they top the hill and are hit by the smell of disturbed dirt.
The sight of the ship greets them next and...it's not what they were expecting.
Zatanna speaks first. "Nightwing...that doesn't look like a landing to me."
"It's a crash," Garth says.
A long streak of still smoking dirt and metal marks the place where the ship skidded across the ground. The ship's hull, meanwhile, looks like its been through the space equivalent of a trash compactor, bright pink color scraped off and one circular wing crumpled nearly on top of it.
"Someone could be hurt," Donna says, already tensing to get closer.
"Wait," he says before she can move, "it might be a trap. I'll go down and check, advance on my sides and keep me covered, alright?"
Donna pulls back, nodding, and the rest of the team spreads out as he moves into the valley towards the ship.
The closer he gets, the more Dick can see that the ship is obviously not from Earth. There's no edges in the metal, nor discernible places for bolts or screws. It's almost like the ship was built complete. Not exactly surprising, but it'll make it difficult to open if whoever's inside actually is injured.
Before he can wonder any longer, the top of the ship burst open with an audible hiss and a hand comes out to grab the side.
He gets ready and around him, he can feel the team tense.
The alien pushes out of the ship and onto the ground and they all get the first look at…
….The most beautiful girl Dick's ever seen.
Bright glowing entirely green eyes blink before focusing on him and a warm orange face tilts to the side, curly red hair falling over her shoulder and onto purple armor.
She opens her mouth and a strange almost melodic language flows out, followed with a gesture towards him before pointing to the rest of the team.
"I, ah," Dick's blushing and he doesn't even knowing why. "We don't speak your language. We're the Titans and we-"
She says something again, obviously confused, and he really wishes they had some kind of Martian on the team, who could at least translate emotions. Maybe there's something at the old League headquarters that will work
"Sorry, but if you would come with us, we can-"
And that's as far as he gets before she's launching forward, directly at him before he can even block. Dick doesn't even have time to curse his stupidity before soft lips meet his and hands come up to frame his face.
She's kissing him.
Dick's brain shuts down. There's really no other word for it; all thought process kind of just...stops and goes into a long form internal freeze without even a helpful error message.
Then, she pulls back and smiles at him.
"Salut! Tu es très mignon, oui?"
He blinks, brain rebooting enough to helpfully processes the words before promptly shutting right back down.
Someone coughs behind him.
"So, ah, I guess she's not attacking us then," Raquel asks.
"Not unless you're Nightwing and have a very loose definition of the word 'attack'," is Donna's light response and...yeah, she's definitely going to mock him about this later.
"What did she say," questions Garth. "That sounded like French, right?"
Dick blush goes impossibly redder before he's luckily saved from answering by the girl exclaiming, "Oh, English! You're speaking English!"
"And now so are you," Jade states flatly. "How?"
Disregarding the accusation in the tone, the girl's smile brightens. "I am from Tamaran. My people absorb languages through touch."
"And kissing's the only way to do that," Roy asks.
She shrugs. "No, but it's one of the most enjoyable."
Dick decides to speak up for the benefit of both the team and his continued sanity.
"Tamaran," he asks, shooting for friendly instead of an interrogation. She doesn't seem hostile yet and he would prefer to keep it that way. "Where is Tamaran?"
The girl turns to him, smile dimming only slightly. "Tamaran is the eighth planet in the Vega system, roughly twenty-six light years away from this one."
"Then, why are you here on Earth," Zatanna asks.
"Tamaran was…." The girl frowns, expression sitting oddly on her face. "My home was destroyed a long time ago, I'm afraid. When I was only a young child." She shakes herself, turning to them. "My apologies, friends, I have failed to introduce myself. I am Koriand'r. It is a pleasure to arrive here on your planet. It looks very, " a pause and glance at the trees, "...green. It is beautiful, I love it."
Garth smiles and Dick thinks it looks just a bit sad. "Not everywhere's like this. There's Atlantis and that's...well, I mean just wait until you see a city. Or even the Tower."
"Tower?"
"The Titans Tower," Dick explains. "We're the Titans, kind of like Earth's protectors, I guess."
"'I guess,''" Roy rolls his eyes. "Way to sell us up, Rob."
Dick ignores him, focusing on Koriand'r. "We help people."
"Protectors…" Koriand'r repeats, trailing off as she takes in the armor of their costumes, Roy's bow, Donna's lasso. She turns back to Dick and grins.
"Then, in that case, I would like to join your Titans, please."
ooooooo
They take her back to the Tower for lack of better options. Then, they call an emergency team meeting.
"...well, at least it's not an invasion," Donna begins.
"She's hiding something," Roy says bluntly and Jade nods at his side.
"Agreed," she says. "She smiles far too much for a recent crash victim from a destroyed world. In my experience, people who use smiles like she does are trying to cover something else."
Dick smiles at Jade, innocently.
"Exactly," she concludes.
"I wonder what happened to her home world," Garth says, looking up from the table. "Did anyone else notice that? She didn't really say, just kind of…."
"Changed the subject," Roy finished.
"Yeah."
Dick frowns. "We definitely don't know everything about her-"
"Or anything," Jade says.
"But," he continues, "we can still find out. From the sound of it, she lost everything and just landed on an unfamiliar world with complete strangers. Given that, would any of us tell our full life story the second we landed?"
A contemplative silence follows before Raquel smiles at Jade. "We've all had our secrets."
Jade doesn't look convinced but she does look a fraction less hostile. To a very large degree, Dick agrees with her and, truthfully, he feels a bit conflicted that he's not more with Jade. Batman would have never trusted this big of an unknown. Dick...he doesn't think he can either-not yet, not until he can investigate-but, well…
Batman also taught him is to trust his instincts.
As if reading his mind, Donna looks at him. "Do you trust her?"
He hesitates. "...I don't think she's trying to hurt us. Or Earth."
That's not trust but it might be enough for now.
"She did ask to become a Titan" says Raquel. "That's gotta be a point in the 'not evil' category."
"Or she's waiting until we let our guard down," Jade suggests but not with much heat.
"Still," Roy says and for the first time since the alert, he sounds more like he's weighing an arrow than getting ready to shoot it, "I didn't think we were accepting applications for new Titans."
"Actually," Zatanna says. "I, um, might have gotten an interested party a couple of weeks ago."
The team turns to stare at her.
"Lilith Clay," she says. "She's a psychic with an affinity for magic. Tracked me down and asked if she could join."
Dick blinks. "Why didn't you mention it, Zee?"
Zatanna shrugs. "Like Roy said, I didn't think we were exactly accepting applications."
"Are we accepting new Titans," Raquel asks, turning to Dick.
He pauses, thinking through the options.
"Adding new members is a team decision," he says eventually. "It won't work unless everyone's on board. What do you guys think?"
Raquel starts first. "I think...I think there's a lot of people out there who want to help. People like Zatanna and I used to be, who could use some more training before they start out."
Zatanna nods in agreement.
"If we're being honest, we could use the help, too," Garth says and he's back to staring at the table. "Super villains aren't that rare. It'd be good if we had backup, too."
Roy sighs, crossing his arms. "There's also Luthor's League to consider. We're more popular and more active but they're still around, handling some small stuff." His nose scrunches like he smells something unpleasant. "I hate to admit it but Luthor isn't the type to quit. If it gets to where the Titans can't meet demand, I'd bet anything Luthor's League will be ready for a come back."
"That doesn't mean we should let untested members out in the field," Jade objects. "Without training, they're just as much a liability as an asset."
"But where would they get training except for us," Donna points out. "We had mentors, older superheroes who had the time and ability to show us the ropes. There's nothing like that anymore and there won't ever be unless we're the ones to start it."
Conversation stops and no disagrees with her.
Donna speaks again. "We're the only active heroes the world has and without a way to train new heroes, we're all that there ever will be. Training new members isn't just for now, it's for the future."
Dick clears his throat. "Jade's right we can't accept new members without any idea of their training, it's too much of a liability. But, Donna's right, too. What do you think about setting up some kind of….training program for potential Titans? Like a probationary period?"
"Who would run it," Zatanna asks.
"All of us. We take on shifts like we do with monitor duty so none of us are overwhelmed and the members get a variety of training experience." Dick feels a twinge in his chest and ignores it. "I can grab some of the old training plans set up for Young Justice to start them out."
The room looks at each other before slowly nodding their acceptance.
"I'll contact Lilith," Zatanna says, getting up from the table. "Someone should probably go tell Koriand'r, too." A smirk lights up her face. "That is unless Nightwing wouldn't prefer to tell her personally."
He rolls his and ruthlessly suppresses a blush.
"Maybe very personally," Raquel teases, wiggling her eyebrows outrageously as she moves to join Zatanna by the door.
Dick takes back every nice thing he ever said. His team's terrible.
Gradually, the team makes it out of the meeting room and to the tower's living quarters.
Dick snags Donna's hand before she can go.
He loves everyone on the team-really, he does, all of them-but if Dick had to pick a member he's closest to, the answer is unquestionably Donna. Which is why Donna's the one he turns to and asks, "Is something up with Garth? He seems...I don't know, off. Even after we found out it wasn't an invasion."
Donna eyes the door before leaning in closer, speaking softly enough that even those with augmented hearing wouldn't pick it up. "Tula broke up with him."
"What? When? How did that happen?"
Garth and Tula had been dating since before even the invasion. He visited Atlantis almost religiously every two weeks, alway with a big dopey smile for the team to laugh at.
Donna shrugs. "Apparently, she couldn't do the long distance thing anymore. He just got back from Atlantis two days ago. Garth's really broken up about it. Last night, he listened to whale noises for hours. Hours, Dick. I would have strangled him if he didn't look so bad."
He frowns
"Nothing we can do, Boy Wonder." She slings an arm around his shoulder. "Only one thing fixes a bad breakup and that's time."
"Time, huh?
"Yep." Donna winks. "Well, that and a really good rebound."
ooooooo
Probably unsurprisingly, the Titans don't have to wait very long before they find their next recruit. Or rather until a news team finds their recruit for them.
Newmark local news posts footage of a teenager, who looks to be half machine, holding up a crashing bus from landing in the middle of a crowded park. The Titans go to investigate. A day later, a slightly stunned Victor Stone-codename Cyborg-first enters the Titans Tower.
With Vic, Lilith, and Koriand'r all signed up, they officially have three new recruits and the new Titans Training Program is announced to the press along with the recruits' new codenames.
The next day, Dick gets a call.
ooooooo
Jay Garrick, looks uncomfortable, as he sits in the Titans meeting room.
Dick can relate. A lot, actually, as the silence between the two passes the ten minute mark.
He didn't know speedsters could be still for this long.
"Would you like some coffee, Mr. Garrick? Tea? I'm pretty sure we still have tea somewhere."
"What were you thinking, Dick?"
Dick thinks he's not talking about the tea.
"A training program?" Jay shakes his head and his foot starts tapping so fast it starts to blur. "You're actually encouraging this? You're letting more children join into this….into this war."
Dick frowns. "Mr. Garrick, it's not like we're grabbing kids off playgrounds. Cyborg and Starfire are both sixteen, Omen's fifteen. That's older than a lot of us were when-"
"Teenagers, then. As if that's much better when they're forced to do things even adults shouldn't."
"We're not forcing anyone," Dick argues. "They asked to join."
"Then say 'no'," Jay sighs. "Dick, I thought you understood. Or that, at least, you would understand. I get it. You want to help and thought you had, too. And that's brave. That's so brave, kiddo. Just like Barry was. Just like Wally."
Dick's eyes sting and he tries to hide it.
Jay sees anyway and smiles sadly. "It's brave but I thought you'd have realized by now. I thought you would've seen how dangerous this is, would've understood what I've been trying to tell you. The Titans is a brave idea, Dick, but it's wrong. It's dangerous and you're going to get everyone killed. You have to stop this. It's already gone on too long and now you're trying to expand."
Jay finishes, looking at him like a kind grandfather forced to tell their kid they couldn't play in the street.
Dick releases a breath.
"What do you want us to do, Mr. Garrick," he asks, "Do you want us to just let people die? Let Atomic Skull set off a bomb in Metropolis? Let a tsunami destroy a town too slow to evacuate? Let Count Vertigo plan a violent takeover? Let Luthor's League extort those desperate enough to need help? Let millions of people die until you think we're old enough to try to help?"
"Dick-"
"Or," he continues, not caring that his voice has gone cold. "since the Titans are so doomed to fail, maybe all either of us have to do is wait. Wait until we all die off and there aren't any heroes anymore. After all, a few years ago, the world only nearly fell; maybe that'll be the final straw to really kill it off."
Ringing silence greets his words.
He looks down. Jay's foot has stopped tapping.
"Dick," Jay says evenly, "I don't want anyone to die. That's why you need to stop the program."
For a brief second, Dick allows himself to close his eyes.
Then, he looks back up.
"I can't. I think you should probably go, Mr. Garrick. I'm sorry."
Jay Garrick stands. "...yes, Dick, I think I should, too. I'll show myself to the zeta tube."
ooooooo
An hour later and Dick's sitting high up on the tower's roof with his heart still thumping heavily in his chest.
He doesn't even know what it's beating with now. Anger? Guilt? Or is it just fear that Jay Garrick might be right and the Titans really are doomed?
He scrubs a hand over his face. It's probably all of them if he's being honest. Oh, the many joys of emotional dissonance.
It doesn't really matter. Dick isn't disbanding the Titans. He can't, not while the world still needs them. Not even for Jay Garrick.
The sound of the roof opening catches his attention.
Koriand'r beams at him to which he manages a half-hearted smile in return.
"I did not know you also enjoyed rooftops," she says, coming to sit beside him. "This is a fortunate surprise."
His smile becomes a little more genuine. "Did you come up here to practice your flying?"
Koriand'r nods, looking wistfully at the sky. "Donna was showing me videos of the team. You did not tell me you could fly as well."
"Acrobatics aren't quite the same as what you do."
"But flying just the same," she insists. "I like it. It would be boring if we all moved the same. Yes, Rob?"
"Oh, Rob's just an old nickname I can't get Roy or Donna to quit calling me. You can call me-," Dick, he catches himself from saying and what's wrong with him, "-Nightwing."
"Nightwing," she rolls the name on her tongue. "It fits you. Since you have given me another name, I'll give you one as well. You can call me Kory if you wish. Donna came up with it and I find I enjoy it."
"Kory," he repeats and she smiles. "I'm glad you're getting along with Donna. How's living at the Tower?"
"Wonderful," she says, seemingly sincere. "I like this new planet very much. Some parts, especially."
The last part she turns and directs straightly at him and Dick fights back a blush.
She swings her legs off the side of the roof as the wind blows through bright red hair. "Is the man I saw leaving through the transportation beam also a Titan?"
"Hmm?" He pulls back from starring to process the question. "Ah. No, that was Jay Garrick, he's….a hero. Retired, now."
"Retired?"
"He quit. A few years ago when he got older."
"I didn't think one could quit being a hero."
Dick almost laughs though he's sure it would be bitter. "Yeah, I don't either but that's what he wants the Titans to do."
"Why?"
"It's….complicated." He sighs, vaguely regretting bringing up the topic at all. "Basically, he says we're too young and we're sacrificing ourselves needlessly."
Koriand'r turns back to the sky. "Some sacrifices will never be 'needless'. Even those made by the young….maybe, especially those."
She falls silent and he watches her carefully.
"Like Tamaran? Was that something you had to sacrifice?"
Without looking at him, Koriand'r nods and brings up a leg to clutch to her chest.
Dick clears his throat. "I don't know what happened but the old Watchtower has some pretty impressive tech. If there's anyone you miss, someone you want us to contact, your family maybe-"
"No!"
He stops.
"I...I'm sorry," she shakes her head, finally looking back at him. "But no, there is no one left for me. My family is...my family is dead. No one is left for me to miss or to miss me."
And she looks so abjectly lost that Dick reaches out and grabs her hand on instinct. "I find that hard to believe."
She looks up with wide eyes and Dick blushes.
"Um, I just mean that you've only been here a week and I think you're, ah...pretty miss-able. Just really, really easy to be missed….in the good way?"
Koriand'r blinks and Dick kind of hopes that a giant monster will attack right now before he can say anything more embarrassing.
And then, she smiles and her hand tightens around his. "You are very sweet."
His blush deepens and he decides to actively change subjects. "So, what were you doing before you landed on Earth?"
She shrugs. "Merely wandering. Since Tamaran, I never stayed anywhere long enough to take note."
"What was Tamaran like?...If you want to talk about it I mean."
Koriand'r looks at him, surprised, and then her face lights up brighter than the sun.
It's night by the time the two make there way back inside, Koriand'r still gesturing wildly as she talks about Tamaran's dark purple seas and strange animals.
When she finally stops, she turns to him with a peace he had never even noticed she lacked before. In a split second, he thinks about Jade's words and fake smiles.
Then, Koriand'r reaches out and wraps her arms around him. Too quick for him to even react.
"Thank you, Nightwing."
Dick feels warm. "Anytime...Kory."
They're standing still, too close for the large entrance hall, and she's still smiling at him and Dick feels….a second away from panicking and a second from flying and he can't decide which is worse.
The sound of a pointed cough and they both jump.
Propped against a wall, Roy smirks at them,
"If you two are finished talking, I've got a new Titans recruit for you."
Dick pulls away and resigns himself to a life of eternal embarrassment. "Um, you do?"
Roy gestures to someone behind him. "She found me while I was patrolling Star and helped take down five gang members. Guys, meet Tara Markov."
A petite blonde girl, maybe a year or so older than Dick, steps forward with a shy smile.
"Please, call me Terra."
ooooooo
"Late," Barbara singsongs when he catches up to her on patrol.
"Long day," he says and then conversation momentarily stops as the rising gang leader they've been tracking pulls up to the warehouse below, followed by representatives from the Falcone crime family. They move for a closer view as Barbara quickly snaps pictures of the meeting members while Dick activates the microphones they set up earlier.
The meeting starts and when it becomes clear there'll be at least ten minutes of requisite bad guy posturing, Barbara turns back to him.
"Want to talk about it?"
He shrugs. "Jay Garrick wants me to disband the Titans."
"Which you aren't."
"Which I'm not," he agrees, "which-big shocker-didn't make for a very fun meeting."
"I bet. That what took so long?"
He shakes his head. "No, actually it was the short kind of unpleasant. Then, I mainly just talked to Kory-Koriand'r. I mean Starfire."
"Kory, huh," she teases. "Getting closer, then? Has she tried learning any more languages yet?"
Something in Barbara's tone seems off but he attributes it to her focusing on the meeting.
Dick groans. "I'm never going to hear the end of that, am I? Why did I ever tell you about that kiss?"
"Because if you didn't, Zatanna or Rocket definitely would have," she says before moving to a more serious tone. "Did you find out any more about her?"
"A bit. Tons interesting about Tamaran but nothing that useful about her." He pauses. "Actually, there was something...It's small, though….Really, there's probably a lot of explanations for it so….it's probably nothing."
Barbara waits.
"She kept saying 'Tamaran is'. Never 'Tamaran was'."
Barbara frowns. "I thought you said Tamaran was destroyed when she was a kid."
He nods, turning back to the meeting.
"That's what she told us."
ooooooo
"Ooh, and another four down for Cyborg bringing him up to-," Donna turns to Roy. "What was it again?"
"Twenty-six," Roy answers, glancing down at a notepad.
"Twenty-six! Let's hear it, folks, for the Silver Fisted Champion!"
"Technically, I'm pretty sure that's steel," Dick comments. "Also, even more technically, don't you think we should be helping rather than keeping score?"
Donna raises an eyebrow. "It's the Toymaster, Rob. The Toymaster. I'm pretty sure my grandmother could take him down, blindfolded."
"Your grandmother's an Amazonian warrior."
"Details," she dismisses. "The point is let them have their fun and take down the bad guy. They've been training for weeks."
On the street, below the building they're perched on, Tara brings up a wall straight from the ground and crushes half a dozen toy bird explosives.
Roy lets out a low whistle. "That puts Terra up to forty-two, Starfire at thirty-eight, Cyborg twenty-six, and Omen sixteen."
Donna frowns. "Telepathy really doesn't help much with the physical stuff. We've got to get her in more hand to hand."
"Agreed," Dick says, already making a note to alter training.
"Frankly, I'm most impressed by Terra," Roy says.
Donna winks. "So is Garth."
"Really? Garth," Dick asks.
"What did I tell you, Boy Wonder? Rebound." Donna grins. "Now, I just have to decide on asking him if it's earth-shattering or if it's the motion of the ocean."
"Ugh, no," Roy says, "both of those are terrible."
Dick laughs. "Roy's right. Why pick?"
Roy and Donna stare at him.
"Um, guys?"
"You laughed," Donna accuses.
"Well, it was a joke so…"
"No, but like a real laugh. Not just like a snicker or that creepy cackle thing." Donna tilts her head. "I don't think I've ever heard you laugh before."
"I...I laugh," he insists. He can't remember when the last time was exactly but he's sure it hasn't been that long.
Donna smiles, almost apologetically. "You kind of don't though. You smile and you make jokes and you definitely look amused but…"
"You never laugh," Roy confirms. "Not in years."
Dick blinks, rocking back on his heels.
"...and it wasn't even that good of a joke," he eventually manages, giving a small smile.
Donna grins, poking him in the side. "Watch it, Rob. It must just be you've finally realized how utterly hilarious I am. It's okay, true genius takes time to be understood."
"Or true insanity," Roy mutters, dodging her next poke. "It's probably not even you, anyway."
"Oh?...oh," she says, following Roy's gaze. "You think Kory's been putting Rob in a better mood. Yeah, that checks."
"No names in the field," Dick says, just to be petulant. "Also, you sound like Batgirl after I told her about the kiss."
Both give him a strange look.
"You told Batgirl that Starfire kissed you," Roy asks as if he had just said maybe Luthor wasn't such a bad guy.
"Yeah." He shrugs. "Trust me, I'm regretting it, too. She hasn't stopped mocking me about it since."
Donna groans, head falling into her hands. "Why are you like this?"
"Anyway," he says, pointedly turning back to the battle where the recruits are just finishing off the last killer toys, "both of you are wrong and nothing's going to happen with Starfire. I don't have time for a relationship."
"Yeah?" Donna looks up as the first few news helicopters finally brave the scene. "Too bad, I think she'd be good for you."
He doesn't answer and all of them focus on the fight.
Tara has Toymaster secured in a heavy casing of stone while the last few toy planes fire mini torpedoes at the rest. Donna was right. They're doing well, the training already starting to show. Tara is obviously the most capable but not too far behind-and no, Dick is not being biased, thank you-is Kory. Which, when he thinks about it, is slightly strange.
Tara admitted to having some kind of training from her martial arts father before he died in the invasion. Vic is already in shape from years of sports but didn't have any prior combat training. Lilith didn't have any kind of training and, according to Kory, neither did she.
Even with the different alien physiology and meta-powers, he doesn't think Kory should be quite so good this soon.
A news helicopter swoops in dangerously close to the scene and Dick almost hacks their radio frequency to order the pilot back when it swerves up to avoid a new flock of toys.
Kory flies up to intercept before they can hit when suddenly….she stops.
A few seconds of hesitation and the toy planes redirect and fire straight at her.
Dick already has batarangs ready.
"Starfire!" Cyborg's arm cannon takes out the toys before they can hit her.
Kory snaps out of the moment, gently floating back down to where the very last of the toys have been taken care of.
"What was that," Roy asks.
"Nerves?" Donna frowns. "And she was doing so well before. Why now?"
Dick shrugs because he doesn't really have any idea either. "Nerves can happen anytime. Especially the first fight. I'll go talk to her. You two help Terra make sure Toymaster's secured."
"Got it," Donna says, leaping off the building with Roy zip lining down behind her.
By the time Dick makes it down, Vic's just finished checking on Kory, heading off to help the others while she hangs back, looking uncomfortable.
She smiles wanly when she sees him approach. "I apologize, Nightwing. I do not know what came over me."
"It's fine, Starfire," he reassures. "I just wanted to check that you were okay. No one quite knows what it's like during their first mission. A lot of people get nervous."
"It's not...I wasn't…" she sighs, looking chagrin. "Thank you for understanding. In the future, I will endeavor not to be in a position that forces my teammates to save me."
"Hey, that's what a team's there for," he points out. "The Titans formed because no one can handle everything on their own. I can promise you that whenever you need it, the team is there for you."
She hums, allowing Dick to guide her closer to where Roy is shooing away the last reporter. "And you, Nightwing? Will you be there for me, too?"
Dick smiles. "Always."
ooooooo
Dick lands lightly on the roof of an old drug store.
"The Bowery is clear," he says. "Nothing but a couple of attempted muggings….Oh, and one old lady's house being robbed."
"Did you save the lady," comes Barbara's voice over the comms.
"Saved the robber. She'd was beating him with a two by four by the time I got there."
"Gotta love Gotham. Pretty quiet here, too. I'm finishing up Robinson Park about to head to Old Gotham."
"Copy. I'm moving on to check the warehouses."
"Have fun," Barbara says followed by the soft click of her signing off the comm.
Dick grins, firing a line and launching himself high into the air.
Against all expectations, Gotham's actually been almost quiet in the weeks since the Blackgate breakout….Which probably means a dozen or so criminals are sitting in their jail cells, plotting something even bigger, but Dick's decided to enjoy it while it lasts.
And that means treating himself to the warehouse district, filled with cranes and tall stacks of shipping containers just waiting to be vaulted over.
His next line catches on the top of a crane and he swings himself up, landing lightly on the highest point. Around him, Gotham's lights flicker through the ever present fog and it's almost like the city's breathing peacefully.
Dick falls backward, bending in the air to shoot another line. Or at least as peaceful as Gotham ever gets.
His feet touch down on a metal crate just for a second before he's spinning off into a flip, followed by a cartwheel, and then spinning into the air again with his eyes closed, the wind in his face, and a laughter stuck somewhere in his chest.
Dick flies.
Then, without any noticeable warning, his eyes jerk open and on instinct, he twists quickly in midair.
A bullet cuts through the air a millisecond later, grazing his thigh as he lands sharply on the roof.
Dick doesn't stop for long. In the next moment, he's off the roof and ducking in between the openings of the crates, using the shadows for cover. Another two bullets tear through the wall behind him and he takes in the angle, placing the shooter high on a pile of stacked crates just to his right.
Keep moving.
The crates aren't thick. Not against whatever type of rounds the shooter's using, they tear through the metal like aluminum foil. Still, he can use the crates to hide his position. Use the shadows between them so the shooter can't find his trail. Never stay on the ground for long so it's harder to guess his location.
Two options: run or fight.
Dick doesn't think he's able to run fast enough that the shooter won't spot him before he can escape. Not with the gash to his leg.
So, fight. Okay, alright, he normally prefers that option anyway. Though, granted, normally with a bit more of an advantage.
He ducks into a slim crack between two crates, where he's almost positive the shooter can't see him, and clicks on his comm.
"Batgirl! Sniper in the warehouse district, I'm pinned down. Do you copy?"
Static greets him.
"Batgirl, repeat, do you copy?!"
Nothing. He tries the other channels. The Tower. Individual teammates' comms. The batcave. Anyone.
Absolutely nothing. He's alone.
The sound of heavy footsteps crunch down a few feet away and Dick holds his breath.
"I blocked your comms unit," a deep male voice says calmly. "Pretty easy to shut down once I figured out the electromagnetic frequency. Your friends aren't coming. So, you might as well come out from wherever you're hiding."
Dick stills. He doesn't know where the shooter is….yet. He's on the ground, making the gun easier to see and account for. Dick can feel him getting closer. This might be the only chance he gets.
"Come on, kid, I just want to introduce myself. I'm-"
Dick launches himself out of the shadows, kicking the figure in the face before hooking his other leg at the shoulder and latching his thighs around the man's neck.
"There you go, kid," the man chokes out from beneath a mask. Then, he brings his hands up and viciously digs his thumb into the gash on Dick's leg.
Dick's vision goes white and he bites his lip to keep from screaming.
He doesn't let go but the man uses that distraction to sling him off and Dick hits hard into a metal wall.
His vision clears as a punch comes straight at his face and he ducks under it, swinging out with his elbow and catching the man in his ribs.
The man lets out a pained laugh and swings his leg out to try to catch Dick at his knees. But, Dick wasn't a Flying Grayson for nothing.
He jumps, turning in the air and throwing two batarangs right at the man's shoulders. Not deadly. But very painful and momentarily debilitating.
As quick as lightning, the man unsheathes a sword from his back-and how hadn't Dick noticed that-and knocks the batarangs away like they're toys.
"Bold move, there," the man says, voice still infuriatingly calm. "What would Batman say if he saw you use a move like that?"
Dick growls, breathing heavily, and launches a smoke bomb before throwing himself at the wall and rebounding right back into the smoke with a kick to the man's back.
The man turns as if the smoke isn't even there, catching Dick's foot and pulling so hard Dick has to go with it unless he wants a broken ankle.
He twists up, a batarang already in his hand and aimed for the man's arm, when the man knocks it away and slams Dick into the wall so hard he sees stars. A large arm goes over his throat, pinning him there until he has to struggle to even draw air.
No. Dick is not going to die like this. Not here. Not now. Not to this man. He refuses.
"I'm not going to kill you," the man says as if reading his thoughts. "Not yet. Not unless you make me."
This close and Dick finally processes all the details he'd only been able to note before. Broad shoulders, clear musculature that could only be the result of extensive training. He'd apparently stored the sniper before coming to ground but a swords is still held in his free hand, sharp edges glinting in the shallow light.
Most notable is the mask-half black, half orange, with only one cut to show a single bright blue eye staring out.
"Like I said, I wanted to introduce myself. You can call me Deathstroke."
Dick glares, choking out words in as dark a voice as he can manage. "What do you want?"
Deathstroke snorts, his arm pulling back and letting Dick fall on his knees.
"Put bluntly, kid, I've been hired to kill you."
Dick tenses, almost moving to attack again when the edge of the sword lands at his throat.
"I wouldn't do that," Deathstroke says. "Not until you hear my offer. I wasn't just hired to kill you, kid. I was hired to take out your team. Every single Titan."
The sword cuts in slightly at his neck, warning against interrupting.
"You pissed off the wrong people. And more importantly, you've pissed them off for too long. So now, some pretty powerful people are tired of having their plans interrupted by a bunch of troublesome junior Justice Leaguers."
The sword moves back an inch and Dick takes it as his cue to speak.
"Why the warning? Why not just kill me?"
"Because I think we can help each other," Deathstroke says. "Fortunately for you, my employers were rather vague in their instructions. They want the Titans 'destroyed', never able to threaten their interests again. They never said that had to be 'dead' and frankly, I'm not one for killing kids. Not when there's another option."
"And the other option is…"
"Disband the Titans," Deathstroke orders. "You're their leader. Tell them to quit. Tell them that if they ever think about putting on a costume that I'll be there to put a bullet between their eyes."
Dick's breathing heavily. The sword's still at his shoulder and a tiny trail of blood runs down his neck. The back of his head, where it came in contact with the metal wall, feels wet and sticky which probably means he has a concussion. Dirt and sweat have dug into the bullet graze on his leg and it aches sharply.
And none of that matters when Dick launches up, faster than Deathstroke can blink, and stabs a batarang hard into a nerve point in his shoulder before finding himself slammed back against the wall with the mercenary's free arm.
None of that matters when he glares up with blood in his teeth and snarls, "You will not touch my team."
The mercenary blinks and then laughs, one arm still dangling uselessly at his side while the other pins Dick to the wall.
"You're lucky I heal." Deathstroke tilts his head, the blue eye narrowing in consideration. "I was right about you. You're a fighter. Ruthless even with all those pointless morals you use to chain yourself." The arm over Dick's neck shifts until a hand pats his cheek in some bizarre imitation of comfort. "Here's the second part of the deal. Disband the Titans and come work with me as my apprentice."
"You're insane."
Deathstroke laughs again. "If you want insane, go to Arkham. I'm an opportunist. The Titans will fall, either by death or voluntary retirement. You don't have to fall with them. Join me and I can give you the training you've never allowed yourself to dream of."
The hand disapears a second after and this time, Dick doesn't move to attack.
"Think about it, kid," Deathstroke says, already sinking back into the shadows. "You still have some time left. Just don't take too long."
ooooooo
"So some crazy villain's trying to kill us," Raquel shrugs. "What else is new?"
"Deathstroke's not just some villain," Jade cuts in, voice tense. "He's not a garden variety lunatic, he's a mercenary-well-trained, almost meta-level reflexes and healing, and very successful in his assassinations. Even the League of Assassins respects him."
"What do we know" Roy asks, turning to Dick.
Dick pulls up a file on the monitor. "Real name, Slade Wilson. Formerly of the US Army. Volunteered for a highly controversial medical experiment, following a falling out with his wife. Survived with increases in agility, strength, and cognition. Left the army to begin work part-time as a mercenary and taking it up full time after the death of his ex-wife in childbirth. As Jade said, he's made a name for himself as unbeatable." He pauses to let that sink in. "From what Barbara was able to hack, he was hired two months ago by an exclusive underworld organization called H.I.V.E., that we've been monitoring for the past two years."
"Why don't we just track down H.I.V.E," Donna asks. "Cut off the money at the source and stop Deathstroke's contract?"
"H.I.V.E.'s gone underground." He pulls up another file. "Deep underground. It's going to take time to find them."
"But we will find them" Garth insists, gripping Dick's shoulder. "We'll track them down and show them why it's a terrible idea to challenge the Titans. Just like we always do. And, in the meantime, all we have to do is handle one more mercenary. Powerful famous assassin or not, it's like Raquel was saying, things have tried killing us for years. We'll stop him, too."
A silence meets his words before Zatanna smiles, elbowing him in the ribs. "Well, aren't you optimistic?"
"Deathstroke's not any threat," Dick says and Jade nods at his side.
"Then we'll train more," Raquel says. "We'll fight harder and be more careful when we're out on missions. It's not like Deathstroke's the first big hitter we've faced."
Dick frowns, trying to find the right words to argue.
"It's not like we're not taking the threat seriously," Zatanna speaks up before he can. "It's just….well, what other choice do we have? We're not disbanding the Titans and we're definitely not letting you go work with a creepy weirdo."
"Besides we have help now," Garth points out. "The training program's going great and a few of the trainees are showing impressive results already."
"Like Terra maybe?" Zatanna smirks. "Or was that someone else I saw you sparring with last night?"
Garth grins. "She's a, ah, really good fighter."
"Oh, is that all," Raquel teases.
"Can we please go back to making fun of Dick about Kory," Garth laughs, shoving her away.
"Nothing's going on with me and Kory," Dick insists quickly just as Roy sighs.
"Regardless of what's going on with either," Roy says. "Garth's right, the trainees are showing improvement. Especially Tara. We might want to look at making her officially part of the team."
Jade frowns. "Really? This soon?"
"Maybe not the others just yet," Roy admits. "But Tara already has more combat training than a lot of us had when we first joined. With that, and her meta powers, she can hold her own during a fight."
"And I'm fine partnering with her while she's just starting out," Garth offers. "Show her the ropes a bit more during her first few missions."
"How generous," Donna elbows Garth in the side while he smiles at her.
Zatanna turns to Dick. "So, are we officially inducting Tara?"
"Not yet," Dick shakes his head. "Not until we handle this thing with Deathstroke. I don't want to bring anyone new in yet when it's just going to paint a target on their back." He grimaces. "Well, a bigger than usual target. We wait, train them and employ them on smaller missions, and then talk about adding them once we deal with H.I.V.E."
"But, who knows how long that will take," Garth protests.
"So?" Jade crosses her arms. "We're not in any rush. More time will just allow them to train more and give us an opportunity to find out more about them. We still know hardly anything about Kory."
Dick hesitates, moving to says something but Donna beats him to it.
"I trust Kory," she says. "She's a bit shy about her past, sure, but she's a good person. I don't need my lasso to tell me that."
Jade hums. "Even a good person can-"
An alert sound cuts her off and Dick clicks on his wrist screen.
"The Scarlet Horde just launched an attack on Coast City," he announces.
Donna groans. "The Scarlet Horde? How do they even still have members? I'll take it. Let me bring a couple of the trainees, too. It'll be a good experience."
"Lilith's back home in New York," Zatanna says.
"And Vic's getting a check up in Newmark," Dick adds, turning to Donna. "You okay with just Tara and Kory?"
"To handle those assholes?" Donna smirks. "Yeah, we'll be fine."
"Be careful," Dick says. "Roy, you fine staying as backup?"
He nods and Donna grins, turning out of the room to go grab the others. Dick and Roy follow behind, heading to the towers monitors.
Roy waits to speak until Dick's already pulling up the cameras in Coast City.
"You don't really think H.I.V.E's the one that hired Deathstroke, do you?"
"They definitely hired him," Dick mutters back, not looking away from the monitors. "But, the strange thing is that they shouldn't have had the money to. Not if our last data on their financials was true."
"So, they've got an additional backer?" Roy stops. "Or you think H.I.V.E's just a front."
On the screen, a notification of a zeta to Coast City comes through and he finally turns to look at Roy.
"It's just like a few years ago with the Injustice League," Dick says. "H.I.V.E now with the assassination contract. The Injustice League then with the Belle Reve breakouts, Cadmus, and the new Venom formula. Both times, the trails lead back to groups that have the motives but not the resources."
"Which means the group that's really behind it could still be active," Roy says. "And we still don't have a single clue who it is."
Dick nods and turns back to the monitor, pulling up the screen where the Titans just arrived on scene.
Another alert pings out from his wrist and he glances down with a frown.
"Another emergency?"
"No, a message from Babs. She sent me a news link."
The links pulls up and Dick starts reading. And then…
"Fuck! Are you kidding me!?"
His hand slams down on the table, rattling the metal as it lands, before he's pushing to his feet and to the zeta beam.
"Roy, keep up monitoring," he calls back.
"Something up in Gotham?"
"No," Dick says, already stepping into the zeta. "Keystone. I've gotta talk to Jay Garrick."
ooooooo
A/N: Second part of the chapter will be posted tomorrow (Saturday, February 16th). Also, in answer to the guest review I got last time, some of the major members of the batfamily will come in soon (though, not Cassandra because I've got a plan for her) and I love your idea about Kyle Rayner and would love to add him in as a side story someday but unfortunately don't have a place to put him into the plot this time. Sorry.
Thanks for reading! Reviews are always welcome!