Disclaimer: I do not, never have, and never will own the Teen Titans or any other registered trademarks of DC Comics.
Chapter 4
Contrary to popular, belief, Titan's tower is often a quiet place. That is, as long as no body is around. This was a different story though. All five of the Titans were sitting in the main room and for once, were just sitting there, thinking. Cyborg was at the table putting a new hand on his arm while everybody else contemplated the evening's events. Even Beast Boy was exceptionally quiet, sitting down with his head on his chin. This however, gave him a headache. He sat up and opened his mouth, getting ready to relieve the tension.
Before any noise could come out though, he stopped, because everybody in the room was giving him a death glare that could melt steel. He closed his mouth and slumped back into the couch. Finally, Starfire spoke.
"Friends, we should not be sad, we were not defeated in battle, it was our enemy who retreated." she said.
"That's not it Starfire, it's why he retreated that bothers me." said Robin. All heads in the room slowly nodded in agreement. "Raven, he seemed to take some interest in your powers, any idea why?"
"No" was all she said.
"Are you sure, I mean-" Robin was cut of by Raven's sharp reply.
"I told you, I have no idea why the guy would be interested in me specifically, I have never seen or heard of him before in my life and cannot imagine why my powers seemed to amaze him." she said slowly.
Cyborg finished attaching his new hand. "There, good as new. Good thing I keep an abundance of spare parts for myself." he said packing up his tools. "You know Robin, this guy gave us a rough time tonight, and he certainly didn't seem friendly. Maybe we should move up his priority on our hit list." he suggested.
"You're right Cyborg, he's a threat to us and everybody else. As of right now, this guy on horseback is our number one priority. Starting tomorrow, were conducting a city wide search for him." Robin said slamming his fist into his palm.
"Guy on horseback, you know, it's strange he never gave us even a nickname or something to go by." Raven said.
"Maybe he's just one of those rare villains with a low ego. I mean, they've got to be out there somewhere." Beast Boy said as he shrugged.
"Yeah, well whatever his name is he's gonna get a good whooping next I see his creepy butt again." Cyborg said as he got up and headed for the door. He yawned, "Alright ya'all, I gonna hit the sack, see ya in the morning."
"He's right, we have a long day tomorrow, lets all get some rest." Robin said getting up. They all got up and went to their individual rooms.
All, that is, except Raven. She sat there motionless staring of into space. Starfire was the last one to the door and stopped when she noticed Raven was not moving.
"Friend Raven, is something troubling you?" she asked in a concerned tone.
Moving only her mouth, Raven responded "I have never seen him before in my life. That much is true, yet there was something… familiar about him. When he broke my telekinetic grip on his weapon, I got kind of a mental 'whiff' of him. It's hard to explain, but some element of him seemed familiar. Like a scent you might smell that reminds you of something from your childhood. Only in this case, it was all in the mind." she said.
Starfire was about to talk about how when the toilet backed up, it reminded her of her mother's wonderful cooking on one of the many joyous Tamaranian holidays. She thought better of it though and simply left the room.
After several more minutes of deep thought, Raven sighed, got up, and went to bed.
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He plopped down on the couch. It made a hissing noise as air escaped the many holes and tares the piece of furniture had endured in a life that was probably longer than his. His room smelled awful, but that's what you get for living in an abandoned warehouse. It was the only place he could find that afforded some secrecy, and it was free. Not to mention the rats made good company.
He held one of his hands up to his face and saw it shaking slightly. He grabbed it with his other hand to stop it and got up. He walked over to his makeshift medicine cabinet and grabbed a couple of Tylenol. He popped them in his moth and sat back down. This was the most scared, and uncertain he had felt since…
He shuddered at the memories that came back and shook it off. The only reason he had fled the scene when he did is because he did not want to display even the slightest hint of fear to his opponents.
He had suspected it slightly when he first saw the girl, but had immediately dismissed it. Now he was almost certain, that creepy pale skinned girl was the offspring of Trigon the Terrible. The fact that thing could reproduce was alarming, he was also surprised that anybody even remotely related to him go be as good looking as her.
"Must get it from her mother." he grumbled to himself. Now his entire mission had to change. She must be dealt with. Just what to do with her was the question. She may be a good person, he sensed no great evil, at least on the surface. Yet he knew that nobody, no matter what their upbringing, could be cleansed of that demon's evil completely. He remembered his oath, and what must be done. She had to be wiped from this earth.
This troubled him though, he had always expected anyone or anything associated with Trigon to be repulsive on every level. She was none of these things. There had to be another way to keep any influence of that beast in check without harming her.
No…, he could not risk it. He knew what had to be done. He would eliminate her and forever remove the influence of that demon from this plane of reality.
Tomorrow, he thought, yawning as he stumbled for his bed. First, sleep, then killing.
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It was morning at Titans Tower. Raven had just finished her meditations, Beast Boy and Cyborg were arguing over breakfast when Starfire and Robin walked into the room.
"Ok team, I hope you all got some rest, because today were going to find that guy from last night." Robin said as he entered the room.
"Don't sweat it dude, I mean the guy rides a horse. How many of those can there be in the middle of the city?" Beast Boy said in between mouthfuls of tofu.
"Though I agree with Beast Boy's observation, we must not underestimate out opponent. He did after all, almost give us the 'but whoop' last night, did he not?" Starfire said.
"Starfire is right, he won't be easy to find. We can't just expect him to come knocking on our door." Cyborg said.
No sooner had he finished saying that, than the visitor notification signal went off. Everybody in the room froze. All that is except for one.
"Oh joyous! A visitor!" Starfire said as she zoomed out the room and down the stairs.
"Should we stop her?" Robin said hunched over.
"Nah, probably just another stupid tabloid magazine reporter." Beast Boy said as he continued to eat.
Starfire flew down the stairs and opened the front door.
"Greetings! Welcome to the Tower of the Titans! My name is Starfire, how may I help…" her last couple of words trailed off as she saw who it was.
"Is Raven home?" the horseman asked.
Before Starfire could respond she felt a sharp prick in her neck and her whole body went limp. She slumped to the floor and could only watch as the hoofs walked past her. Then everything went black.
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Robin was working on the computer while everybody else stood behind him.
"Ok, we've spotted him here, and here, so that means…" he typed furiously.
"It's not enough to go on." Raven said.
The doors to the main room swooshed open.
Without turning around Cyborg asked "Hey Star, who was it."
"Who do you think." said a deep voice behind them.
Nobody even breathed, they were all to scared to move. Yet slowly they all turned around to see exactly what they feared they would, the same dark character from the night before.
"Where's Starfire!" Robins shouted as he jumped up.
"Relax, she's passed out on the couch downstairs. She'll wake up in a few hours with a killer headache, but nothing more." he replied. His was still on his horse and had to bend low to pass under the door frame as he entered the room. "Now before you all get to wound up and excited, let me just say what I came here for." He paused "Raven, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to end your life. You can make this quick and painless by not resisting or, this can get real drawn out and nasty, the choice is yours."
"What kind of question is that!" Beast Boy said waving his hands.
"Why do you want to kill me?" Raven asked in her monotone voice.
"No time to explain, just tell me your answer." the rider said.
"Of course she won't let you, and neither will we!" Cyborg yelled.
"Titans go!" Robin yelled and they all leapt into action.
Everybody came running at the intruder full speed. The rider simply sat there and waited. The first person to reach him was Beast Boy, in the form of a green tiger. He leapt upon the rider knocking him off his horse and onto the ground. Once they hit the floor, Beast Boy was on top of him. The stranger then put his feet on the animal's underside and pushed the 500 lbs. creature across the room.
Cyborg was right behind him powering up his cannon. The stranger then jumped up and drew his pistol. He fired seven shots at Cyborg, but unlike the night before, these bullets penetrated his armor. Three entered the bore of his cannon shattering the outer lens, the rest punctured through his chest. Cyborg staggered back as his lights started to flicker. He then hit the floor half sitting against the wall.
"I was prepared this time, found some armor piercing rounds." said the dismounted rider as he holstered his weapon.
"Robin, he hit my main battery, I – I can't move. You'll have to finish him off." said Cyborg as he sat there twitching.
Robin was already on it. He ran at him at threw a fist at the attacker's face. The rider bent over backwards and threw up his right leg into Robin's mid-section. Robin grabbed his leg with both hands before it could come in contact and threw the rider into the wall.
"Nice move, but I'll be honest, martial arts was never one of my strengths." said the rider as he pulled out his pistol. Before he could fire though, a bird-a-rang knocked it out of his hand. "Now you're just starting to tick me off." he said as he rose and pulled out his sword.
The rider just barely dodged a black couch that flew right through the air where his head had been moments earlier.
"I may not to be able to get a hold of you, but that doesn't mean I can't grab anything else. Azarath Metrion Zintho-" she was stopped as the black horse rammed into Raven knocking her to the ground. She rolled over and looked at it confused. It stood over her looking at her before it whinnied and reared up. She rolled out of the way before its hooves came down where she had been lying moments before.
A green lion then clobbered the animal from the side and the two rolled over on the ground, the lion clawing at its prey and the horse kicking with its hooves trying to get up.
Meanwhile Robin and the rider where fighting hand to hand, the rider with his sword and Robin with a bird-a-rang in each hand. They were parrying each others attacks for a while when the horseman stopped.
"I'll be honest kid, you're pretty good. So good in fact, I can't beat you in a fair fight. So I'll be the first to let you know, I don't fight fair." and with that he grabbed a pot of bubbling purple goo that had been cooking on the stove next to him and flung it at Robin's face. Robin stumbled back trying to wipe the stuff from his face when the horseman hit him on the head with the pommel of his sword. Robin then slumped to the floor in an unconscious heap.
He then looked at Raven standing in front of the window in a crouched position like she was ready to spring forward at any minute. He started walking towards her.
"Hey tough guy! I'm still here! Why don't you come get some of this!" Cyborg said as he tryed to move. The rider simply walked past him never even throwing a glance his way.
The horse and a green cheetah were circling each other when the rider walked up behind Beast Boy. Beast Boy had just realized who was behind him when he spun around to face his knew threat. At the same time the horse ran forward and knocked the other animal to the ground. Beast boy then morphed back into his human form while moaning and gripping his side. The horse then walked over and planted a hoof firmly on his chest.
"Hold him there for a second will you." said the rider as he walked over to Raven.
"Why do you want to kill me?" she asked.
"No time to explain. Unlike the villains in the movies, I don't give away my plans when victory is near." He raised his sword and made a downward sweeping motion with it. Raven dodged to the left but he knocked her feet out from under her with his leg.
He grabbed her by her cloak and with one hand and held his sword high in another. In any second he could have ended it, but he just stood there staring at her. She could not see his face, but she could feel him looking into her eyes. She could feel his grip loosening, see the sword in his hand begin to shake. After a wile his whole body began to tremble. He finally let go of her and his sword and slumped to the floor sobbing.
"I can't do it." he said holding his hands to his face. Raven just stared at him puzzled and unsure of what to do.
The horse was also looking at him with an oddly human expression of confusion on its face when Beast Boy, seeing an opportunity, changed into a rhino and knocked the horse to the ground.
By this time Robin was slowly coming to and walked over to the sobbing mass that had been their enemy.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I don't know." was all Raven could say.