Author: ferretgirl1124
Genre: Action/Adventure, angst
Rating: R
Warnings: Dark themes, graphic content, child abuse, implied character death
Pairings: RaexBB, RobxStar, KFxJinx, CyxBee, SpeedyxAqualad
Summary: Neko's return hails a new reign of terror, and her latest plot shows itself to be more terrible then the Titans could have ever imagined.
A/N: Ah, the continuation to the evil, short prologue. Hope you guys enjoy this. I'm already working on the second chapter...oh, and this wasn't beta'd, so if there are any big mistakes, I apologize.
Dedicated to: Meiriona, for updating her fic 'I never saw it coming'. If you like SpeedyxAqualad, you have got to check it out.
"...And in other news, a young girl was found dead last night. Jennifer Harlan, age 3, was discovered outside her home after her mother overheard a large struggle. She had been missing for four hours previous, and her parents believed she had simply wandered away after being taken to a park near her home..."
The screen clicked back to a window. "Same M.O. Neurological poison. The girl had a small scratch on her cheek, where she had been given the poison. The noise was intentional, though; she had a deep bite mark in her left leg that was still bleeding when her mother found the body."
"So not only does she want her victims be found, Neko's not even trying to hide her identity anymore." Raven's eyes flashed dangerously.
"Right." Robin crossed his arms, a grimace etched on his face. "But why is she doing it?"
Starfire scowled. "She is bored. This is a new game for her."
"She's tryin' to mess with us again." Cyborg stood beside the couch, arms crossed and eyes narrowed.
"So, the question is, what is the new game?"
Beast Boy, who sat on the back of the couch, spoke up last. "It has something to do with little kids. They're a huge weakness for a bunch of people." His teammates glanced at him, slightly surprised because of how ecclectic his flashs of insight were, but nodded.
"Well, this is a great brainstorming session and all, but we don't know where she'll strike next."
Robin glanced at the sorceress and smiled strangly, an eerie resemblence to his mentor appearing. "No, but I think I know some one that does."
The Titans were greeted warmly upon their arrival at the prison. The guard sent out to meet them smiled almost fawningly and motioned to a near-by door. "Hello. He's waiting in there. Be careful. We have his eyes covered, but that may not be enough. We still don't know how his powers work."
They nodded and filed into the room, the girls wincing slightly at the sight of the blindfolded boy. Nightmare, like Plasmus, was kept locked in stasis 24/7, the only definate way to keep his powers under control. Robin sat in the chair opposite the strange boy and leaned forward. "Nightmare. I want you to tell me where Neko went."
For a horrible second, Raven was sure he would say 'Hello Clarice. Have the lambs stopped screaming?'. However, he simply cocked his head to the side slightly and laughed, a short, hoarse noise. "I'm sure. And who might you be?"
"We are not here for your games!"
Behind the blindfold, the villain's white eyes widened slightly. "You brought them here, Robin? Aren't you afraid for their wellbeing? The very sight of my has been known to inspire terror."
Robin scowled. "You're the one that should be scared!"
Laughter began to echo around the small room as the boy threw his head back and roared his amusement. "Me? There is only one person in this world that has ever scared me." Taking his hand away from his mouth for the first time in the interview, he revealed a puffy scar that was usually hidden by his mask. It went from one cheek to the chin, curving up to the other cheek. It was if some one had attempted to cut his throat and missed. Not only that, but it was a relatively fresh wound, that couldn't have been more then a year old. Grinning at the small gasps that escaped the Titans, he leaned back in his chair. "And she's the one that gave me this."
"That's why you worked with Neko? Because she scared you?"
His head whipped to face Beast Boy, pinpointing his location by voice alone. "I feed off fear, green boy. She's the only one that was never afraid of me. She...was my one weakness."
Raven blanched slightly. "Why would you stay with some one like that?"
His grin was oddly crooked. He had never been this relaxed in the time that the girls had known him before; being away from Neko obviously made him happier. However, in some way, it made him weaker too. "You can't enjoy emotions, can you demon? Imagine that for a day, you could feel an emotion without any reprocutions. One catch though. You can only feel hatred. It's a 'bad' emotion, but just being able to feel it would be amazing, wouldn't it? It was just like that. She scared me. She was the only one that scared me. And I was addicted to it."
They stared at him, horrified but intrigued. Cyborg finally spoke up, voice cracking slightly. "Why are you telling us this?"
He was greeted by another laugh for the blindfolded boy. "Because, in the long run, it won't mean a damn thing. I'm in here, she's out there, and the ten minutes I just wasted gave her more time to run without helping you at all."
After Nightmare had been led out of the room, the Titans stayed to discuss. Robin scowled and leaned against the table, arms crossed. "Well, that went well."
"It did help us though." Raven floated forward slightly to catch the other's attention. "We know that she has anti social personality disorder, and that explains a lot about her."
Beast Boy sighed. "Rae, c'mon, speak english."
"She did." Robin's eyes were now gleaming as he caught on. "And she's right. Anti-social personality disorder is more commonly known as 'sociopath'. We'd suspected that, but knowing that she can't feel fear..."
"He could have been lieing." Starfire's voice was quiet, and her expression was grim. Seeing Nightmare again had shaken her badly, and she was not nearly as good as Raven as at hiding that fact.
"Yeah, but he didn't act like he was. Besides, it helps explain her more, but we're not trying to understand her. We're trying to catch her."
A sigh followed Cyborg's comment as Raven leaned shook her head. "But if we can understand her, we can catch her. Knowing how she thinks will produce patterns in her behavior that we can follow."
Robin shook his head as the team fell to scawbling. This was too sensitive of a topic for all of them, and they all needed sleep before considering anything else. Or, at the very least, food. "Titans, calm down. Let's go grab some pizza, and we can look over our notes afterwards." A tense silence followed his comment, before they all nodded and left the room.
Outside, the same gaurd caught their attention. "Hey! Heard he wasn't too much help to you guys." Ignoring the glares he was recieving from Raven, he continued. "Don't worry. We do have some one else you can talk to, and I'm positive he'll know more then that guy ever will."
"Who? Her only other accomplice was killed by her."
The guard grinned, obviously proud that he got to be the one to report this to them. "That's what we thought too, but that guy's got the luck of the devil himself. He's sitting in our med ward right now, alive and kicking."