Note: The following chapter was written under the assumption that the Titans from the cartoon have histories similar, if not identical, to their comic book counter parts.

The Titans Tower rang once more with alarms signalling another theft. The Titans rushed out in preparation.

"Man, this is the third night in a row." Beast Boy complained. "If its tall dark and spooky again, can we just play possum? I'm really tired of getting my butt whuped by some whose name I don't even know!"

"But Beast Boy, is it not our duty to stop villains and those who would commit evil acts?" Starfire asked as she flew by.

"Fine then, I'll play possum and you guys can get your butts whupped." BB said, changing into the aforementioned animal and doing an exaggerated theatrical death scene.

"No can do salad-head, if we gotta suffer, so do you." Cyborg said dragging Beast Boy along by the tail.

"It might not even be that guy this time." Robin said running along side the two. "The last two places were Wayne Enterprises and Lexcorp; this place is Ashton Biotech. Both Wayne enterprises and Lexcorp don't deal in biotechnology like Ashton Biotech does."

"Its him." Raven said in a toneless voice as she hovered past them.

"How do you know?" Cyborg asked.

Raven said nothing, as they kept moving.

"Maybe she's got a thing for tall, dark and spooky and that's how she knows." Beast Boy said.

Raven stopped, turned and glared at Beast Boy. Beast Boy put his hands up in front of himself protectively.

"I didn't say anything. I didn't say ANYTHING!" He said desperately.

The Titans arrived at Ashton Biotech building with little banter after Raven had cowed Beast Boy with a look. They found Crow once more waiting for them.

"Awwww not again! I'm getting real tired of this." Beast Boy complained.

"Worry not, o green been." Crow laughed. "For I am not your opponent this time. Though you may wish it were I that you were fighting."

"What are you..." Raven started.

"AZARATH METRION ZYNTHOS!" Crow cried out, raising his hands.

Their own shadows seemed to come alive and they rose up to consume the Titans. They struggled but eventually succumbed to the darkness. They now stood before Crow, their bodies mere black silhouettes.

"Now, we shall see how well you withstand the dark, Raven." Crow said.

**************

Robin stood alone on the rooftops of Gotham city. How he had gotten there he knew not, he remembered that he and the Titans had been about to engage that guy again when he suddenly found himself in Gotham and not in Jump City. His musings were interrupted by the outburst of maniacal laughter. The boy wonder recognized it and yet it was no one he knew: it sounded like the voice of all the villains he had fought alongside Batman and yet it was an amalgam of those voices.

"Whose there? Show yourself." Robin called out.

The voice laughed again and Robin could here distinct voices in it almost; the voices of Two-Face and the Joker in particular.

"You're the detective, you figure it out." The voice mocked. "Oh wait that's right, you aren't a detective, just the apprentice."

Robin tired to focus on where the voice was coming from, but found himself distracted by what was being said. The voice seemed to be coming from all directions at once.

"What was it Two-Face usedto call you? The 'Boy Hostage' wasn't it? That's all you were really, you got in Batman's way."

Robin fumed, it was like this voice was trying to incite his anger by saying things he himself had thought once. These were his doubts being shouted back at him. On the bright side he was beginning to discern from where the voice was coming from.

"Don't give me that look. You know its true. You were cannon fodder for the bad guys and Batman always came to pull your butt out of the fire."

Robin finally knew where the voice was coming from and headed off in that direction.

"Face it, as long as you're Robin, you'll always be the back-end of 'Batman and Robin'."

Robin came to a particular roof and saw a horrible sight: Cyborg's arm off to one side, some of Beast Boy's hair littered the roof, Raven's cloak cast off to one side and Starfire, unconscious or worse at the feet of some assailant, whose back was towards Robin.

"Wh-what have you done?" Robin demanded.

The figure turned and Robin saw in shocked horror that it was himself in the uniform he had worn as Slade's apprentice.

"What you always knew you would do: You always knew you'd be why you're friends got hurt." His doppelganger said with a twisted, evil smile.

*****************

Starfire stood on the Ashton Biotech building, alone. She was looking for the Titans, who had mysteriously vanished, at least from her perspective, as they had been about to engage that man. Her search was interrupted by dark blasts of energy. Starfire looked above her to see her sister Blackfire flying above her.

"Did you miss me, sister?" Blackfire said with a smirk.

"Komand'r! You should still be imprisoned!" Starfire exclaimed.

"Calling me by my old name, dear Koriand'r? You should concern yourself more with why I'm here than why I'm not still in prison."

"The why are you here, sister?" Starfire demanded.

"Why to replace you of course." Blackfire laughed.

"My friends can already see through your schemes, sister. You cannot take my place among them."

"Doesn't mean they'll keep you." Blackfire laughed.

Starfire unleashed bolts of energy, which her sister easily dodged. Blackfire flew off with Starfire in hot pursuit. Blackfire stopped before a large billboard and grinned wickedly at Starfire. Starfire didn't hesitate as she fired blast after blast of energy at her sister, causing smoke to rise from the impact. When the smoke cleared, Blacfire was gone and the billboard was falling upon the streets below. Starfire tried to intercept it, but wasn't fast enough. However, the falling billboard was destroyed by Cyborg, who blasted it to pieces, so that it wouldn't harm anyone below.

"What were you thinking, Starfire?" Cyborg asked.

"Yeah, you could have hurt someone." Beast Boy said.

"I-I... It wasn't... I did not mean to..." She started, looking desperately for some sort of support.

Raven turned and walked away, which summarised her answer well enough. Starfire sank to her knees and turned to Robin, but he just looked at her coldly.

"That was reckless... We don't need that kind of recklessness in a team member." He said.

"R-Robin... I...please... What are you saying?" She asked, desperation, sorrow and a little fear creeping in her voice.

"We don't want you, go back home Starfire." He said, turning away.

And that was perhaps the most hurtful thing she had ever heard.

****************

Beast Boy found himself in a familiar but almost forgotten locale as he found himself before his birth parents' state side home. As it had not been inhabited in years, the place was in disrepair.

"I haven't been here in years... Wonder how I got here." He mused.

"You're here, Garfield Logan, because it is time for you to put away your clown outfit." An older, sinister voice said behind him.

Beast Boy turned and saw an old man in a rather expensive suit. The man, whom BB easily recognized and loathed, was named Nicholas Galtry, the one time attorney for the Logan estates. After the deaths of his parents, BB was placed under the guardianship of Galtry. Galtry was a mean, greedy old codger who had been embezzling from BB's inheritance. To have the money all to himself, Galtry plotted to have BB killed, but after a lengthy court battle, BB came under the custody of Steve Dayton and Rita Farr.

"What do you want, you old fogey?" BB asked. "You can't do anything to me anymore."

"Oh but I can, Gar. You see because Dayton has been risking your life as the superhero Beast Boy, the courts have granted me your custody. Your inheritance and your life is mine to do with as I please, once more." Galtry laughed.

"Not if I can help it." BB said, morphing into a bull and charged Galrty.

However, just as he was about to strike Galtry, he hit something hard and fell back, reverting to his human form. He found himself in a cage and he couldn't break the bars.

"I found myself thinking about how much money you could make with your abilities. Think about it: Freako the animal boy, the teen cirucus. It'll make millions." Galtry laughed.

BB looked out of his cage and saw hundreds, thousands of people looking at him, waiting for something. He tried to shape shift out of the cage, but his body wouldn't change. The spectators began to throw rotten tomatoes at him, calling him 'freak' or monster.

"Just as you couldn't save your parents from drowing, you can't save yourself." Galtry said evilly.

******************

Cyborg found himself in a S.T.A.R.R. Labs laboratory, not just any laboratory, but the one where he had the accident that made him what he was today.

"Not my best work, but you will have to do." A voice said behind him.

Cyborg turned to see his father, Silas Stone, the man who had rebuilt him after the accident.

"What do you want old man?" He growled.

"Is that anyway to talk to your creator, machine?" The older Stone said.

"Creator? What're you talking about, old man? I'm your son."

"My son, Victor Stone, died in the accident. You are a robotic facsimile."

"I'm human! I'm not just some machine."

"Are you? With a body like that? Why don't we find out."

Silas Stone waved his hand and Cyborg looked at his; cracks were beginning to form in his metal skin. The skin broke revealing wiring, circuits and other various mechanical parts. His body began to disassemble itself small piece, by small piece. The parts swirled about in the air, revolving about the place where his body once was. His head began to disassemble and he screamed in terror.

*****************

Rave stood in a field she did not recognize. There was a light breeze and it was very bright, not a cloud in the sky. There was a cabin in the distance and she felt a deep dark sense of foreboding. She moved towards the cabin, her heart beating ever faster as she did. She opened the door and saw a crib in the corner. She walked over to it and saw an infant inside; it was crying. She felt a presence from behind her and she turned to confront it.

"THAT CHILD BELONGS TO ME." Trigon the Terrible said as he towered over Raven.

DUN DUN DUN! Ain I a lousy braggart leaving a cliffhanger like this?

Raven Facts: Trigon once appeared in Azarath in an attempt to reclaim Raven as his own. As a defense mechanism, Raven unleashed her soul self for the first time. The manifestation of the soul self confirmed that Raven was indeed the daughter of Trigon. Trigon instilled more of his essence into Raven's soul self and left without her, promising that she would eventually belong to him. When Raven turned 18, she sensed Trigon's evil growing, so she left Azar and traveled to earth to gather together a band of heroes that would be able to stop him. She first appeared to the Justice League, but was rebuffed when Zatanna sensed an evil within Raven. Undaunted, she gathered together the New Teen Titans, a new incarnation of the old team with Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Cyborg, Starfire and Changeling.