Beast Boy and Cyborg were standing intensely, screaming and jumping up and down, in the common room of the Teen Titan's Tower. Their fingerswere tapping so furiously on the controllers that the three onlookers were mildly surprised they didn't break them.

"I'm so kicking your butt, you little grass stain!"

"I'm goin' to beat you this time, Cy!"

"No way... YOU PASSED ME! HOW COULD YOU PASS ME?"

'Hee hee. Go me and my secret weapon of attack,' Beast Boy thought happily as he pulled in front of Cyborg's car. 'I'm going to win! OH MY GOSH - I'M GOING TO WIN FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!' BB's lead was getting larger and larger, and even though Cy was trying his hardest, he couldn't catch up. Robin and Starfire were yelling encouragements. Raven was watching silently from the corner, a ghost of a smile playing over her mouth. She wasn't allowed to feel emotion, but she couldn't help being happy and proud for her boyfriend. He was just so overjoyed. Her eyes quickly darted around to make sure nothing was breaking. The finish line was in sight. Only a few more seconds and Beast Boy would be victorious. Just a little further. And the screen went blank, red lights flashing all though the tower. A new image flashed upon the TV, one of Jump City.

"Nooooooo!" Beast Boy cried as he fell to his knees, his eyes wide and glassy. "I was so close," he whispered. Cyborg looked down at his best friend and couldn't help feeling a twinge of sympathy for him. That didn't mean he would go any easier on the changeling next time.

Raven walked over and, uncharacteristically, went on her knees and gave BB a quick hug, whispering "next time" into his ear. Beast Boy shivered. Raven got up, pulling her hood over her head to cover the blush that had creeped over her face. She might love Beast Boy, but that didn't mean she suddenly loved public displays of affection as well.

"Looks like we got a new criminal on our hands team." Robin said taking control of the situation as usual. "Female, robbing a bank, not armed, so we should be on the look out for any kind of power. No civilians in sight luckily." He placed a hand on BB's shoulder causing the green changeling to get up with a look of determination. "Titans GO!"

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

at the bank robbery...

KRTHAWK! One of the support beams in the old warehouse they had followed the villain to snapped as Robin was thrown through it. He lay there for a few moments dazed, which could have been his demise if Starfire hadn't thrown a torrent of star-bolts at the tow-headedgirl. The girl leapt away skillfully to have red energy come slithering out of a gem she wore around her neck and shock Starfire. A smirk was apparent on her face until it was wiped off when she literally ran into Beast Boy as a polar bear. With one of his massive paws he swiped at her collar bone. One of his claws sliced through the purple satin string holding necklace she wore.

"No!" she screeched and took off, disappearing into grey smoke.

"Well... that was different." Raven commented dryly.

"Ya, I know. Hey y'all, what's this?" Cy bent down to pick up the ruby gem.

"Oh, uh, must have cut it off accidentally with my claws."

"Do you think it will be causing the curse, Friend Cyborg?" Starfire asked nervously, as she had just seen a scary movie with Robin involving cursed jewels.

"Nah, probably something she just stole."

"Let me see, Cy." Beast Boy, trying to get a better look, was jumping all around. Cy tossed the ruby to him. He took onelook at it and yelped, throwing it like it had burnt him. Robin caught it.

"Beast Boy! What's up with you." Robin gazed into the stone and gasped almost letting the stone fall to the floor.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Back at the tower...

The Titans all stood around the kitchen counter, staring transfixed at the jewel before them. As they watched, ayoung woman was being ripped apart as vines with briers shot through her body. She fell bleeding and shredded to the forest floor. The scene immediatelychanged to a living room where a man was pointing a gun to her head, shouting at her. The same girl who was dead a moment ago was now on her knees with tears running down her face, that was until the man fired the gun.

"Oh I think I'm going to be sick." Cy said.

"What the heck is this!" demanded Robin.

New scenes, just as awful, were playing themselves before the heroes. Never was it the same, but it was always equally hideous and ended with the girl dying.

"I...I think I know what this is." Raven's voice came out shaky and more high pitched than usual. Inside the jewel, the door to an oven exploded off it's hinges. Mentally, Raven chanted for a few seconds before she started again. "I believe this isthe Ruby of Disincarnation." They all stared at her with blank faces. "A woman was given this necklace by Athena, and she was instructed to find the most evil person in all the world and trap that person in the ruby, for there they would suffer the worst fate of all beings. They would die forever, over and over. And this isn't your pleasant die-in-your-sleep kind of thing." She took a breath. "Well, in each generation of the family, the oldest daughter would get the necklace, and Athena would give them a person to go and capture. But it was said to have been lost ages ago. Also, the jewel has special powers to help the Punishers, as they were deemed, achieve their task. That's what the red electricity was." She looked down at the stone, to see the girl die once more. When she looked back up, her teammates were all gaping at her. " What?" she asked icily. A chores of "nothings" met her ears.

"This is most awful," shuddered Starfire.

"Well what do we do about it Raven? Is there a way to return it to the rightful owner?" Robin, always trying to do the right thing, definitely didn't want to see anymore images from this prison.

"Maybe, but I would have to read up on it. Beast Boy would you please stop being so immature and take your fingers out of your ears." Of course, Beast Boy didn't hear this. Black power surrounded his hands and jerked them out of his ears.

"EEK! Jeez. How can you stand to hear her scream like that?" Now it was his turn to be gaped at. "What?"

"Beast Boy, man, we can't hear anything." Cy said looking concernedly at his friend.

"No" Raven whispered as all the lights shattered over their heads.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"So I'm the only person who can take her out of the ruby because I can hear her?"

"Yes."

"And she is in there because she is one of the most evil people in the world?"

"That is the theory."

"Why would Beast Boy want to do that?" Robin looked at Raven knowing that there was more going on behind those purple eyes than she was letting on. Raven, of course, was freaking out. All her emotions were screaming at the same time. Why, oh why, did this have to happen? Why did her green idiot of a boyfriend have to be able to hear this girl? Why did she always have to have the ones she loved taken away? Not that she considered Malichor a loved one anymore but... Raven had all these thoughts because she knew what it all meant. Yes, Beast Boy was the only one to be a able to free the girl, but that wasn't all. The reason only Beast Boy could hear her was because he was her soul mate. The one person that was perfect for him in the whole entire universe. If he pulled her out, it would basically mean the end of their relationship. Then again maybe this wasn't so. The changeling was an unusual case. His super hearing could have just been able to pick it up. Also, couldn't a legend about a stupid trinket be wrong? What did a nic-nak know about true love? She clung to these words with hope. In the back of her mind, Wisdom and Knowledge knew better, but they had been pushed so far back thatthey were only a tiny whisper to her now, an annoying buzzing. "I won't tell him. There is a chance this is all a mistake." she decided while adding a mental SHUT UP! to all her sides.

"Well, it is quite possible that this person could be... better. Not the evil person they were. Also there is the slightest of chances this person is not bad at all, and it's all a mistake."

"Maybe Friend Beast Boy should be doing the saving of this poor soul. Not even the most evil of persons deserves this, correct?" Starfire had voiced a dilemma everyone was debating in their own heads at that time. No one deserved this, right?

"She doesn't look all that evil, does she?" Beast Boy said looking over at the drawer they had stored the gem in so that he wouldn't have to hear her cry out anymore. "What am I thinking? This couldn't end up well, could it? Ugh... is this how Raven always feels? Always thinking about big concepts and big words." his thoughts were interrupted by Cyborg.

"It's not like we couldn't handle ourselves if this gal turned out on the bad side, right y'all? We can always just put her into jail if things turn out badly. Anything is better than in that thing."

"I agree with you Cyborg. I think we should pull her out, but it's really up to what Beast Boy wants to do." All the Titans faces turned to the one green face in the group. BB's brow was furled in concentration.

"Ya, lets get her out of there." He walked over to the draw they had stashed The Ruby of Disincarnation. His hand hovered over the handle before he took a deep breath and pulled it open. Screams of horror and pain once more ravished his sensitive ears. Oh gosh, ohgoshohgoshohgosh. OK. Here goes... wait what do I do? He turned around and voiced his question to the group of onlookers, gem in hand.

"I don't know. There has never been a written account of anyone pulling someone out."

"Maybe you just right reach in there with your hand?"

"You could have to break it."

"Why does Friend Beast Boy just not ask her to come out?"

Beast Boy proceeded to try reaching his hand in. Then he asked the girl to come out. Each of these plans having failed, he considered the last one. Pulling out a large sledgehammer, he put the ruby on the ground. Taking aim, he did a few practice swings, like you do in golf. SLAM! The hammer hit dead on causing the ruby to break into hundreds of red particles. Three feet above everyone's heads, a shape began to form. It seemed as if all the light around them was being pulled into this ghostly form. Slowly it began to have mass. A girl with soft, smokey brown curls, and lightly tanned skin was soon before them. She wore a light blue spaghetti strap tank top and black bell bottoms. After only a few seconds, but what seemed to the Titans like an eternity, there was this pop that was felt rather than heard, and she fell. Beast Boy, with amazingly quick reactions, caught her in his arms.

"I'm going to get her to the infirmary," and Beast Boy took off towards the Teen Titans hospital area.

"I'll go, too, since he has no clue what he's doing." and Cyborg left as well. Starfire, Raven, and Robin sat in silence for a few seconds before Star gasped and pointed at the red dust that was all that remained of the once whole piece of jewelry. The dust was beginning to shake. Soon it was whizzing though the air and began to reform the gem. It clinked back to the floor where it lay as if nothing had happened. Robin walked over and quickly pocketed it before turning to the others.

"Lets go see what's going on." and they left for the infirmary.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx