Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans or any character from the show.

Twists and Turns

"A True Beginning"

by Johanna Smit

A week after Raven had moved to Jump City, she started to feel a little more comfortable in her surroundings. Working at the coffee house wasn't all that hard. On weekdays she only worked in the afternoons and during the weekends she only started working at nine in the morning untill one am. Though, every night she worked untill one in the morning. It was good money it quite relaxing because there werent too many customers. Plus, she also scored free herbal tee which helped to soother her nerves which were going haywire.

Every night Raven would have nightmares where images of her mother, covered in blood and looking like she was in the utmost agony, where she would reach out to Raven, open her mouth to have only blood coming out and no words. Her mother would dissapear and Raven would fall into a peaceful darkness but that, too, would be stripped way just like every good thing in her life. Her father would then appear entwined in fire and laughing menacingly while looking right at Raven. His eyes would be a deep crimson, satanic. Raven's father would then charge right at her but before he had her in his grasp she would wake up and find herself screaming.

One night when Raven woke up from that dream there was a knock on the door. She stood up and put on the first thing she could find, a dark blue cloak, over her pajamas.

Raven opened the door slightly, bracing herself in case the person thried to force themselves in.

"Uh, hello. Is everything all right?" asked a guy who looked just a little bit older than herself.

Raven frowned. "Why?" she asked.

The boy seemed at a loss for words. "I..." he began but trailed off as Raven opened the door completely. "Sorry, I thought I heard someone scream," he said as he tried to look everywhere else but at her.

"It was the T.V."

"Oh. Well, I am Richard, Richard Greyson. I guess that you are my new neighbor?" he asked with a foolish grin on his face.

"Yea, I guess so," Raven said then added when she noticed the inquiring look on Richard's face, "I am Raven Roth."

"Good to meet you. I guess I'll see you around, hopefully during a more conveniant time," he said with a light chuckle.

"Maybe," Raven replied.

"Night," Richard said over his shoulder as he walked down the hall back to his own appartment.

Raven closed the door and fell with her back against it. "That was...strange," she thought to herself. Richard didn't seem in the least bit desturbed bu the cold radiating from her. Raven sighed as she walked over to the kitchen and made herself a cup of herbal tea to soothe her nerves and maybe wipe away some of the confusion that had formed in the last couple of minutes.

On Sunday morning the skies were dim. A thick fog had settled over most of Jump City, and it didn't seem natural. Richard cast a wary glance toward the heavens and shrugged from the eeriness of it all.

As Richard made his way down the street he thought about the strange girl from the night before. That was the fist time he had seen her out of the whole week she had been living next door to him. The only reason for him knowing that someone actually lived there was because of the screams he heard every night. She probably got the worst nightmares and she didn't want anyone to know about it. He figured that from the way that she had said the scream came from the TV, but there was no sound of a TV even being on when she opened the door.

She was a strange girl. It wasnt often that someone younger than eighteen would be living by themselves, especially in that part of the city. But who was he to speak being only seventeen himself?

Robin used to live with aman who had found him wandering the streets as a little boy. Unlike most runaways, he had run away from the circus instead of running to it. His parents were trapeze artists but something went terribly wrong during one show and both of Richard's parents tubled to their deaths. Richard had seen how it all happened and was devastated. He knew that it was not accident because he had seen one of the clowns messing around wiht the ropes. He felt guilty because he hadn't said anything.

Being as young as he was back then, Richard was scared, so he ran away. A masked man, the infamous superhero, Batman, had found him and took him in. Richard spent nine years under the guidance of Bruce Wayne, learning how to fight and be a real man. True, Richard didn't have any powers but learning how to fight like a superhero never hurt anyone.

As Richard got older, he started to think more for himself and found that some of the tacticts Batman used to get rid of his enimies weren't always the best, such as killing them. Richard told Bruce of his views and it started a big argument which ended up with Richard leaving.

"Yo, Dick, wait up," a familliar voice yelled from behind him.

Richard spun around and saw his close friend, Victor Stone followed by Garfield Logan, Garfield's girlfriend, Terra McCoy, and Kory Anders, who supposedly had a big crush on him. They were all heading his way.

"How many times do I have to ask you not to call me that?" Richard asked sounding very annoyed.

"Sorry Boss," Victor answered sarcastically.

Kory had already found a spot close to Ricahrd and was touching his arm tentatively. "Friends, what activity will we partake in today? We could go to the place of the mall," she suggested in answer to her own question.

"That is okay, Star," Richard said as he called her by her nickname. "Why don't we just walk around a bit?"

The group agreed. There was a lot of small talk but Richard hardly listened, too many memories were comming to mind. At one point he completely stopped and stared off at nothing.

"Dude, which planet did you just go to?" Garfield asked making Terra giggle.

Richard snapped out of his trance and found that he was staring at a small coffee house. It was also then that he noticed Raven, his neighbor, walking into the dark of the coffee house.

"Anyone up for coffee?" Richard asked as he started walking.

"The Hidden Crypt," Terra said in a mock creepy voice. The others looked at her confusedly. "It is the name," she explained as she pointed towards the place.

The word "creepy" flashed in their minds as the followed Richard to his apparently, newly found haven.

The inside of the coffee house was darker than usual due to the lack of customers. Not many people went out on Sunday mornings. Relaxing, yet dark music was softly playing in the background.

When Richard saw the name of the coffee house he was even more intruiged. He was pretty sure that he had herad that name while he was lving with Bruce.

Thehushed whisperes of his friends made him smirk. He knwe that they were talking about him, his uncharacteristic actions. The group had only met a couple of months ago and didn't know eachother quite as well as they thought they did. This was a completely new side of Richard that none of them had ever seen before and it was kind of freaking them out, especially Kory.

They found a table big enough to fit everyone and sat down. Someone leaned over Richard's shoulder and lit the cande in the center of the table. Confused, Richard turned around and saw Raven standing there with a scowl on her face. That same scowl faltered when she saw who was looking up at her.

"Hello, Raven," Richard said with a slight grin on his face.

"R...Richard?" Raven asked.

Raven was confused, not because she didnt recognize him because she did but because of the little skip of a heartbeat she felt when she looked into his eyes.

"Yea. I didn't expect to see you again for a while, considering. Do you work here?" he asked.

Everyone at the table were watching the two in stunned silence. They had noticed the light tone in Richard's voice as he talked to a very creepy and emotionless girl.

"Sorry, yes, I work here. Can I get you anything?" Raven asked.

"You know her?" asked Vic as Raven walked away to get their drinks.

"Yea," Richard said as he turned back to face his friends.

"How would you know such a thing, friend Richard?" Kory asked, purposely not refering to Raven as a person.

"I met her last night." All eyes widened as they looked at him. "She is my neighbor, okay. I heard someone screaming so I went to check if everything was all right and as it turns out, she was fine. We talked a little and I went back to my apartment. Why are you interrogating me?" Richard asked with an exhasperated sigh. "You know what, I am going out for a while. No, sit, I wont be long."

Richard left his friends behind him knowing that he would be the topic of their discussion for as long as he wasn't in their presance.

Outside the skies looked even more ominous than it did earlier that morning. Raven was sitting on the sidewalk with her back against the wall. She had asked Jinx to cover for her while she took a little break. Jinx was exhasperated becuase they were the first customers of the day but Raven just left. Something just didn't feel right.

Raven looked up from the cup of tea in her hands only to see Richard stepping outside. He noticed her, gave her a half smile and sat down next to her. Both of them were wearing colors on the darker side such as baggy black pants, a black turtleneck for Raven, and a plain black T-shirt for Richard.

"What are you doing out here?" Richard asked her.

"Thinking," Raven replied. "You?"

"Thinking."

Both of them sat in silence, Raven sipping from her cup every once in a while. There was a flash of lighting in the distance, followed by a loud rumble. Raven and Richard looked at eachothe and shrugged.

"It wont be long now. That storm will be here in a couple of minutes," Richard said. "Do you also get the feeling like something is going to happen?"

Raven nodded then took a sip of her tea. "Something big."

The two sat in silence for a while longer, staring up at the churning clouds.

"Maybe we should get inside," Richard said as he stood up. He then turned to Raven and stuck one hand out and pulled her up.

Again, there was another flash of light followed, not even followed, but at the exact same moment a deafening clap of thunder. Raven and Richard both fell to the sidewalk and covered their ears.

AN: Wow. I got 124 hits on my first chapter and only three reviews. That is okay I guess, but over a hundred hits? That really drove me to write faster, though reviews would maybe speed up the process. Anyway, I have already started on the third chapter. Yeay! I finally saw the last three episodes of the season and oh man, were they good or what? Well, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and I hope to get quite a few reviews this time. Thanks for reading.