Sorry it took so long, but here is the first full chapter. Hope you like it! Again, please let me know if you want more, that is the only way I will keep posting for this story.

Read & Review

I do not own Teen Titans


The world burned. There was heat and flames everywhere. Orange and red filled Kori's vision as someone screamed off in the distance. Smoke filled the air and she could not breathe. Kori gasped for air in desperation as the world began to slowly fade into darkness…

Kori shot up straight gasping for air.

She was not burning, and neither was the world around her. She was perfectly safe in her bed.

Kori's chest heaved, desperate for air as she took mental note of herself. She was covered in a cold sweat, her legs were tangled in her white sheets and her covers and pillows were strewn about the floor.

She took several deep breaths to calm herself.

'It was only a dream.' She told herself.

Looking up Kori saw herself in her vanity mirror. She was a wreck. Her fiery red hair was a rat's nest, her tan skin was pale and she had dark circles under her eyes. Her green eyes looked dull and lifeless.

A knock on her door startled Kori.

"Kori? You okay in there?"

"Yeah, I'm good Gen," Kori replied.

"Okay, I just wanted to check and make sure. Usually, you are up to meet the sun."

"I'm okay. Just overslept is all."

"Alright well, breakfast in half an hour!"

Kori rolled her eyes and proceeded to get out of bed.

For the summer Kori's father had "requested" that Kori attend a summer-long political retreat for the children of several of the world's leaders and most important diplomats. Kori really had not minded the idea of the retreat. While there the world's most influential young adults and even a few teenagers were supposed to attend conferences and lectures on politics, economics, and leadership. The idea was to bring the next generation of the world's leaders together so that they could spend three months brainstorming the next big ideas on how to improve foreign relations and other problems such as world hunger and global warming.

This of course was not what happened. The idea was a good one in theory but those who had cooked it up had made a few mistakes. First of all, they brought in the world's wealthiest, most famous, and most spoiled young adults and teenagers together without supervision or guidance and expected them to be productive. Secondly, those in charge of planning this event had booked it for the summer in the Bahamas. Of course, all of the rich spoiled kids were going to spend the summer on the beach drinking and partying.

Kori had been one of the very few who had actually taken the retreat seriously and attended every lecture and conference. She had even written several papers on several ideas on how to improve foreign relations, built a network of contacts in her professional field, and lined up an internship at the UN for when she graduated college.

Kori had even accomplished some of the goals her father had intended for her to accomplish in favor of their country. Though there were a few other goals of his that Kori had not even considered completing.

Now all she had to do was get through the farewell brunch and get on a plane back to the states. Once she landed at Gotham International she would go straight to her townhouse to help her roommate Rachel finish moving in before classes of their senior year at Gotham University started tomorrow.

Kori could not wait to get back to Gotham. She had built herself a life and a home there over the past three years and loved every minute of it. She also wanted to see her best friend Raechel who had been a godsend. Raechel had helped Kori learn the ropes of "normal" college life when Kori had first moved to America for school three years ago.

Brunch, however, Kori was dreading. The food was good of course, but the people she would be forced to interact with….she shuddered at the thought.

Kori abhorred anyone who used their power, money, and or position for their own personal gain. And that pretty much described every human being at this retreat.

Kori threw on a pair of white Capri pants, a purple tank top, and a pair of white wedges. She brushed out her waist-length hair and applied eyeliner and mascara. After that, she threw the rest of her things into her suitcase and made her way downstairs to the large dining hall.

As she passed yet another top-of-the-line suite she heard shouting from inside.

"Lilly get out of the bathroom! I need it!"

A pause where Kori assumed Lilly was replying.

"Daddy is going to hear about this!"

Kori simply rolled her eyes as she walked past.

Lilly and Rose were twins from Venezuela. Their dad was one of the wealthiest business tycoons in South America and had literally bought his way into the world's social elite.

When she got to the dining hall Kori saw that for once their meal was buffet style. Grinning in relief at the relaxed and casual feel of the meal, she grabbed a plate and began piling food onto it.

Kori always had a healthy appetite and most of the girls she knew were green with envy over the fact that Kori could stuff herself and still be a size two. After piling her plate high with fresh fruit, freshly baked pastries, eggs, bacon, and sausage she grabbed a cup of coffee and found a seat at an empty table.

"Here you are, Ms. Anders."

Kori's personal assistant Alicia appeared from thin air with a glass of orange juice and a portfolio for Kori to look over.

Kori had long ago given up on trying to get Alicia to call her Kori. Alicia had been hired by Kori's father when Kori had begun high school to help Kori keep track of homework, schedules, and other activities such as leadership conferences and this retreat. Alicia was old-fashioned and stubborn and though she was only a few years older than Kori, Kori respected her and considered her to be a wise mature role model.

"What's this?" Kori asked gesturing to the juice.

"Your last checkup showed that you were low on vitamin C. The doctor said you needed more and since you refuse to take what you refer to as "fake vitamins" orange juice it is."

Kori frowned at the juice but Alicia had her "I mean business, don't test me" look on her face.

"Fine" Kori relented as she took a sip of the juice.

"Your class schedule, list of reading materials, and contact information of your professors are all in the portfolio. I also contacted your work and they said you can start back first thing next week. They have sent me a tentative schedule and I checked it against your class schedule, made a few adjustments, and added it to the portfolio. Also, today's headlines of the news and tabloids are in there as well. You should take a look." Alicia gave Kori a pointed look.

Kori groaned.

"Komi again?"

"Just read miss."

Kori opened up the portfolio. Usually, the school stuff would be on top, followed by work then the news. The news was always local to where Kori's life was currently focused and never included the tabloids. She and Alicia were both meticulous when it came to this routine. Kori had no room for gossip magazines or fake news in her life.

This morning however the tabloids of Kori's home country were the very first thing in the portfolio. Kori grabbed it and quickly scanned the headlines.

Komi, Kori's older sister, had once again made a fool of herself and their family. According to the tabloids Komi had gone out for a girls' night, gotten drunk, and gone on a rampage. After stealing over a hundred thousand dollars worth of items from a local boutique, she had been arrested for drunk driving, drag racing, and crashing a $12 million car of a visiting ambassador.

Kori quickly scanned the article gathering that Komi had also been allegedly trying to sell herself on the street and had proclaimed that she would sell national secrets to the first guy to give her a decent night in bed.

Not being able to read anymore Kori dropped the offending piece of paper in frustration and place her head in her hand. After a moment of silence, she looked up at Alicia.

"Have you spoken to…..?"

"First thing this morning."

"And just how accurate…..?"

"Very."

Kori sighed.

"I'll call from the plane. Move my flight up an hour. I want to leave as soon as possible."

"Yes ma'am."

With that Alicia left Kori to finish a breakfast Kori no longer had an appetite for. Sighing, Kori forced herself to eat at least a few bites of her meal while going over the rest of the portfolio. Once she finished looking over the portfolio and had eaten as much food as she could stomach, Kori stood to leave.

Just then Philip, the second prince of Spain plopped down in the seat next to her in a very un-princely manner.

"Leaving so soon señorita?" Philip waggled his eyebrows in a flirtatious way, though Kori knew he meant nothing by it.

"I was," Kori replied curtly.

"Now now Kori, you must sit and hear our news!" Gen, the president of France's daughter, appeared on Kori's other side.

Kori looked at her watch and then reluctantly sat back down. "Fine, you have five minutes. Go."

"Well," Gen leaned in close with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "I heard that the ambassador of Mubi's daughter slept with the son of the ambassador of Marraco."

Kori raised an eyebrow.

"Is that all?"

"Please Gen, this is Kori. We need to give her something more delicious than basic rumor mill gossip."

Gen nodded. "Right, right."

Gen tapped her finger on her chin for a second pretending to think before she leveled an evil grin on Kori. Kori knew that look. It meant nothing but trouble.

"I know what will get your interest. So you know how everyone was required to attend this retreat, yes?"

"So?" Kori crossed her arms in irritation.

"So, even so, not one but two people did not attend who were invited."

"Your point?"

Gen's evil grin grew.

"Four words. Xavier Reed and Richard Greyson."

Kori's carefully controlled mask slipped for just a moment. By the increase of Gen's evil smirk, Kori knew she had seen it.

"Ooooh, that got her attention," Philip said.

Taking a deep breath, Kori put her emotionless mask back on.

"Why would it? I have no interest in either of them."

"No?" Gen sat back in her chair, arms crossed and a satisfied smirk on her face.

"No. Now if you will excuse me, I have a plane to catch." Kori stood and began making her way toward the door.

"Very well, then I suppose it will not interest you to hear that Xavier Reed did not attend due to his marriage that took place earlier this summer. Or that he has just arrived for his honeymoon with his new bride."

Kori paused briefly but shook her head. Any interest she had in Xavier had ended years ago. She began walking again but Gen was not finished.

"Or that Richard Greyson did not attend because his father excused him from coming. Or that he only decided not to attend once he learned of your attendance."

Kori whirled around.

"What?"

Gen was still smirking. She knew that her prey had taken the bait.

"Of course, he only knew that you would be attending when he asked about you. Personally."

Kori frowned.

"I still don't see how that should interest me. He hates me just as much as I hate him."

"Oh? So you do have a personal relationship with him? Why Kori I never knew, I had just assumed that you simply knew one another by reputation."

Gen feigned shock in her tone and expression, but Kori could see the evil mischief in her eyes.

Kori rolled her eyes.

"Of course, I know him by reputation. We go to the same school. I have only met him once and he is just as vapid, shallow, and arrogant as his reputation suggests."

"And from this one encounter, you knew that he truly hates you? And that you truly hate him?"

"Yes."

"Huh, I would think that, for one such as yourself, to judge a book, not by its cover, but its contents, it would take more than one encounter."

"Trust me, it didn't. His book isn't that big."

Philip snickered.

"Who needs a big book when they have a big-"

"Philip!" Gen said in astonishment. But Kori could see Gen's smile from where she stood.

"Trust me, his isn't that big either," Kori replied.

Both Gen and Philip looked at her in surprise that such a comment would come from a prim and proper person such as Kori.

"And how would you know that?" Gen asked with another wicked grin lighting her face.

"Because he's a pig who overcompensates and offered to show me the one time we did meet."

"And you said yes?!" Philip asked in astonishment.

"Of course not, but he showed me anyway."

"And?" they asked in unison.

"And I had him arrested for harassment. Now, I really do have a plane to catch."

With a flip of her red hair, Kori turned and left, leaving Gen and Philip dying of laughter in her wake.

"No wonder he hates her…" Kori heard Philip say.

Kori smirked to herself as she left the room. She of course had no idea what Richard Greyson's dick looked like, but she had not been able to resist that opportunity to start a rumor of her own. Her smirk faded quickly though as her thoughts raced. Xavier was married, and Richard had avoided the conference because of her. She did not care, really, but she was perplexed as to why her stomach would not stop churning.

'Komi. I'm just worried about Komi. That's why.'

Her nausea explained away, Kori made her way to the lobby, hoping, praying, that she did not run into Xavier. Fate, however, was not that kind.