DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Titans, obviously. Nor do I own Soothsayer or Kenkaku; they belong to Rei Ronin. Green Destiny belongs to whoever owns the rights to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
SPOILERS: Up to Aftershock 2.
SUMMARY: Some souls are meant to be lovers for all eternity. Some, however, are meant only to be enemies. When a new serial killer blows into town, Beastboy discovers what it means to be part of the latter. (Part of Rei Ronin's Prophecies Universe.)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story takes place after Rei Ronin's "Waves of Fate", and occurs at the same time as "Rolling the Dice" by the same author, so go read those first, 'cause they're good and this story won't make much sense otherwise. You can find them in the C2 community in my profile.
Also, anything in bold is a reference point, so kindly make your way to the end of the chapter for a translation and/or explanation. Okay, enough with the babbling. Read and enjoy.
Fade to Black I
Math. The most boring class in the history of all classes. It was an event dreaded by most every student to ever grace the halls of Jump City High School. In fact, most students the world over could find something to hate about the subject, whether it be the excess of numbers or the seemingly never-ending, mind-numbingly dull lectures on topics that couldn't possibly have any real world application outside of becoming a Math teacher.
As Vice Principal Jenny Hartwell walked into the small classroom, she could practically feel the students' dread permeating the air, filling the atmosphere and hugging her close like a warm fleece blanket. It almost made her shudder with delight.
Unlike her colleagues and underlings, she didn't try to engage her vic- er, students. She didn't try to make them comfortable in their subject. No, having them enjoy, or even accept, their time with her was completely against her philosophy. In fact, it was the main reason she'd transferred from the more dark and foreboding Gotham to the ever cheery, if crime filled, Jump City. Her old students at Gotham Heights Prep were far too jaded to appreciate her brand of torture…um, education. These students, however, were new and unspoilt. They still felt the horror of her very presence.
"Good morning, students," she said, 'accidentally' slamming her large pile of books on her desk, jolting everyone out of their misguided sense of security. She smirked as they all groaned out a reply. Crushing that small sliver of hope that developed in their little hearts when she was late was always her favourite part. "Today we'll be looking at Trigonometric Identities. Get your books out." All around the room, bodies slumped over desks, flopped back in chairs and generally wilted. The teacher's evil smile widened as she wrote an equation on the board. "If anyone can tell me the identity of cosecant squared X with respect to the tangent of X, without looking in their books, then I might consider cutting your homework in half..."
At a desk in the centre of the room, a petite blonde girl closed her eyes, blocking out the sounds of her classmates' tormented groans and her teacher's taunting as she changed her mindset from average high schooler, Sarah Howell, to that of the Soothsayer, designated prophecy expert to the Titans. As fun as Math class could be, she had better things to do, like help the city's finest.
Soothsayer sat up straight in her chair and breathed deep.
In…
Out…
Her mind cleared into a black void, where nothing existed besides a light, soundless, sourceless wind.
In…
A mental projection of her physical self materialised in the void, her long blonde hair fluttering about her face as she stood serenely in the endless black, clothed in the tight indigo jeans and short, loose, white and cream robes her subconscious designated to her Soothsayer alter ego. At some point, she might even go about making it her official costume. When she finally admitted defeat in remaining relatively normal, that is.
Out…
A thick white mist swirled forth from the ground before her, its smoking tendrils snaking out to the far corners of the black abyss in which she stood, then curling upwards into the air.
In…
Everything seemed to still for just a moment…Out…
Suddenly, images and sounds rushed in from all directions in a huge gust of wind, filling spaces beyond and within the swirling mist. Colours bended and merged into a sea of chaos. A roaring din of voices rose up from the surrounding darkness, each vying for attention in varying timbres and volumes and languages, until all that was left was an indistinguishable cacophony of sound.
And standing in the middle of it was Soothsayer's mental self, seemingly unaffected by the change in atmosphere. Throughout the whole thing, she maintained a meditative stance, listening calmly to the chaos. For the longest time, there was no outward movement save for the flapping of her hair and clothes in the wind…
Then, she raised her right hand above her head, with her index and middle fingers standing straight up, while her other three fingers curved slightly towards her palm. Closing her eyes, she slowly lowered her hand until the tip of her index finger hovered directly in front of her Ajna chakra.
And she concentrated for seconds…
She snapped her eyes open and whispered, "Cease…"Suddenly, everything ground to a stop, the voices, the images, as if the whole imaginary world was frozen, and then, just as abruptly, the mess of colours splashed outwards to form actual pictures. Ancient scrolls, stone tablets, and every other medium a prophecy had ever been written on, down to the last paper napkin, were scattered across the black space in complete disarray. The voices lulled to a low, and slightly more tolerable, murmur as all the invisible sources spread over the endless space, leaving only snippets of predictions intelligible from where she stood.
Soothsayer's mental self let her legs collapse beneath her, dropping into a lotus position with a gracefulness that only a being with no real mass could have. She lay her right index and middle finger on the mist covered ground before her and closed her eyes, continuing her deep breathing as she concentrated on calling on 'The Path'.
A shimmering indigo light formed around her fingertips. The wind whistled around her ears, picking up traces of the light and spreading it forth like a glimmering trail. It curved around the floating prophecies, cutting through the thick white mist like a mystical knife. Once the light had made a complete circuit around the prophetic field, the perimeter branched off into a multitude of capillary paths that wove around and between the various prophecies until they finally met up in the centre of the field.
Soothsayer breathed deeply, sensing The Path in all its parts, her instincts feeling for the road that would lead her where she wanted to go.
"Show me the shapeshifter," she murmured to herself, feeling invisible tendrils of power extending from her ajna chakra, skimming over the field with imaginary antennae.
Keeping her eyes loosely closed, she lifted her right hand again, this time stretching it far in front of her as she rocked herself to her feet.
Soothsayer's eyes drifted open and she jumped as an ancient parchment popped up two inches in front of her face. She rolled her eyes at herself as she stepped back.
"Should have expected that, Sooth," she muttered to herself as she skimmed over the semi-obscured text. It was the Half-Man prophecy and it had been jumping out at her for the past week, but despite its seeming eagerness to be acknowledged, the white mist still covered most of the writings, making it virtually impossible to fully decipher until the mist was good and ready to dissipate completely.
"If you're so anxious to be read," she grumbled as she passed her hand through the mist, watching as, expectedly, it reformed around her palm before anything could be seen. "You could at least try to clear yourself up so I can see."
The parchment didn't offer her a reply, as per usual. Shaking her head slightly, she stepped around the parchment and made her way to the first split in The Path, turning left, towards the outskirts of the Field of Destinies.
"Titans! Go!" Robin yelled, extending his bo-staff and twirling it in his hands as he swung onto the street below, deflecting three plasma bolts before slamming both boots into the shooter's face. The criminal spun 540 degrees on clumsy toes before face planting into the asphalt like a lead kite. His gun spun haphazardly through the air, nailing his buddy in the forehead just as he was about to shoot Starfire out of the sky.
The Tamaranian charged a starbolt in both hands and launched it at the bank robbers' stolen armoured car.
"HAA!"
The back tires exploded, sending the car careening into a building front. Thick, grey smoke plumed from the crushed engine as the airbags deployed belatedly.
All seemed still from within the car.
A green vulture circled around the wreckage twice before swooping down the street and landing as a green elf. Beastboy crept warily to the car.
"Dudes?" he called, craning his neck to see around the airbag. "You okay?"
THWA-CRRRACK
Beastboy tossed himself to the side as the car door came flying away from its frame. The wing mirror flew off and clipped him in the neck, catching him by surprise. The added force sent him flat on the asphalt. The door landed somewhere down the street.
CRACK-CR-SHHHSSKKKKTTT
CLUNK CLUNK
Heavy boots stomped their way towards the changeling as he sat up rubbing his neck.
The criminal was tall and slim, dressed in a thick, black, rubber bodysuit that covered him completely from head to heavy, steel-tipped toe. Along each side of the suit, was a thin strip of copper. Matching three-inch thick copper bands were wrapped tightly around his waist, wrists and ankles. His head blocked the sun as he towered over Beastboy, his rifle hitched nonchalantly on his shoulder. His grey eyes glinted evilly as he aimed the gun at Beastboy's head and cocked it.
Beastboy's eyes widened.
The criminal winked as he pulled the trigger.
In that split second, Beastboy shifted into an armadillo and rolled between the man's legs. Before he could get another shot off, he morphed into an anaconda and slithered around his body, pinning his arms to his sides, until he was face to rubber-covered face with the criminal.
The anaconda hissed in his face as it tightened around his body, squeezing the breath out of his lungs.
The criminal only smirked under his mask as he fingered a hidden switch on his belt.
Suddenly, long arcs of blue electricity formed around his body.
DZZZZZZTTTT!
"DAA-AAA-AAAH OH!"
Beastboy unconsciously reverted to elf form and went flying across the street, crashing through a mailbox and landing flat on his back on the sidewalk, his limbs steaming.
"Oof!"
The criminal chuckled as he approached the groaning boy, once again aiming his gun at him.
"Shoulda just saved yourself the trouble."
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
A shadow-engulfed streetlight plowed into his midsection as the Shinobi skidded to a stop at the edge of the battlefield.
Raven planted her foot on the ground, keeping the bike steady as she reached her hand out and swung the streetlight, and criminal, into a brick wall. She smirked as the man slumped forward, unconscious.
Taking off her helmet, she kicked the stand on the bike and floated towards Beastboy. She knelt beside him and helped him up.
"Are you okay?"
"Dude…" Beastboy winced at her touch on his burnt skin. "Since when do you drive Shinobi?"
"It looked lonely," she said dryly.
Their communicators crackled to life.
"Titans! The perps are wearing electrified exosuits!" Robin's voice announced helpfully. "Don't get too close!"
"Gee, thanks, Rob," Beastboy muttered.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted movement back at the car wreck. Another man had climbed out of the driver's side and was aiming a gun at Raven.
Without thinking, he shape-shifted into a ram and head-butted him in the ribs, making him lose his grip on the gun.
Unfortunately, the guy's suit was on.
Beastboy reformed with a big burn mark on his forehead and a head full of singed hair.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
Black shadow formed around the driver's torso and lifted him five feet in the air. The dark energy seemed to seek out all the hidden circuits in the suit, shorting it out in a matter of seconds.
Raven glared with white glowing eyes.
"Time for a blackout."
With that said, she slammed him into the concrete pavement, knocking him out cold.
Cutting off her power, Raven turned to survey the rest of the battlefield. There were still four bank robbers left, awake and shooting with abandon. About two blocks away, she could make out another crashed armoured car with two more criminals climbing out. Every one of them wore a black exosuit.
She turned to Beastboy. "You might as well head back to the Tower." Beastboy looked like he was about to protest. "Unless you have an animal form that's not susceptible to electrocution, there's nothing much you can do here."
Beastboy could only stand and watch as she levitated off the ground and entered the battle without another word, clearly dismissing him. He looked torn between jumping in anyway, and actually listening to her for once.
In the end, seeing the logic in her words, he turned into a sparrow and flew westward, toward the bay and the Tower.
REFERENCE POINT:
Ajna Chakra – The sixth energy centre in the human body, according to Eastern philosophy. Also known as the third eye. It's the source of psychic vision and spiritual guidance. Located in the middle of the brow, or, in laymen's terms, where Raven has her gemstone.