Dark Titans - Arc 1 - Red XX?

Chapter Epilogue

Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't

Red X smiled a brilliant smile, the snug material of her mask stretching and conforming to her lips in a nearly sensual manner. She was still flush with the exhilaration of her night's activities. Her mind kept replaying each second over and over again, every moment of her break in, every movement of her battle with Robin, every instant of Chang's defeat. It had all been so . . . just so . . .

Words failed the young woman, as she continued her trek down the pitch black tunnel. The complete darkness didn't bother her at all, though. Her suit was, obviously, equipped with both low light and infrared capabilities, so traipsing around in the darkness was as easy as traipsing around in the day. A small giggle escaped her lips at that thought. Four or five months ago, the very idea of doing this, walking down an abandoned and unlit tunnel in the heart of a bad neighborhood . . . she wouldn't have even considered it.

Of course – of course a lot had happened in those past months, more than she would have dreamed possible, really. There were a lot of things she never would have considered doing back then; battling a madman against the backdrop of a disintegration cannon disaster . . . well, that was just the tip of the iceberg. True, that was a bit of an extreme case; she was still enjoying even the simple pleasures of walking around the city after dark, of soaring through the air like a certain martial artist or two.

And it was all thanks to this wonderful, wonderful suit. Her next step flowed into a graceful pirouette, as she danced down the rough floor of the tunnel, only to pause suddenly several steps later. She raised her gloved hands before her face, studying them intently.

It was still somewhat troubling to think about what Robin had said, though. She wasn't a thief . . . was she? How could something like that even be possible? She had never even littered before, let alone broken an actual law. It wasn't like Robin was actually using the suit . . . it was just going to waste . . . Wasn't it? She'd had a good reason to take it as well, a very good reason indeed. Was it her fault if she happened to . . . to get a little overexcited when she went out on the town?

And she had actually fought Happosai! And she'd done really, really well, too! There were likely only a handful of people on the planet that could make the same claim. Even then, she'd never meant to keep the suit, really. She'd only meant to borrow it, just to help . . . but how could she have returned it after doing something like that? Could she have actually just given up the suit . . . all the power . . . all the excitement . . . just because Robin told her to?

She giggled again: obviously not! Now that she thought about it, it had been a good thing that she'd robbed that facility! After all, Professor Chang had been planning to steal the Xenothium himself for some time. If she hadn't done it, then he would have, and he likely would have made just a terrible mess of it. Guards likely would have gotten hurt, and then the Titans wouldn't have been right there to stop him either! Yes, yes, it definitely made up for her little . . . acquisition; she hadn't taken very much anyway. That facility had had far too much on hand anyway, didn't they know how dangerous and unstable Xenothium was?

Suddenly a blush burned her cheeks, as another thought randomly surfaced. The image of Cyborg, fainting like . . . well, like Ryouga, when she had wrapped her arms around him. It had been so adorable . . . and so easy . . . so very easy. She remembered learning about taking advantage of males back at the academy, but it had seemed like a completely alien concept to her then. But . . . it had been so easy.

She had never really thought of herself as being attractive before, not really. Certainly, people had always told her what a pretty girl she was, or how lovely she was, but it had never been the same. She had never thought in terms of being desirable before. The thought that she could suddenly have boys wrapped around her fingers . . . She'd seen other people do it back home, and often as well. After all, many of the girls back home were very pretty, and many of the boys were oh, so shy, but it was never anything she had done.

Hmm, with just a few gestures she remembered seeing the other girls do from time to time, she could easily reduce Cyborg and Ryouga to gibbering wrecks . . . that would make it so much easier to beat the Titans the next time she fought them . . .

She shook her head harshly at that.

. . . Not that she ever planned on fighting the Titans again. That wasn't the reason that she'd sto . . . borrowed the suit, after all. Quite the opposite really. Just because it had been thrilling, and nerve wracking and utterly, deliciously terrifying when she had faced them down, all by herself . . . That wasn't any reason to keep fighting them, one would think quite the opposite . . . really.

With a confused sigh, she sat down, finally coming to the end of her long walk. Without a second thought, she flicked her wrist, casually letting a small X fly to the floor. As soon as the small letter hit the ground, it began to glow with a crimson glow, shedding a modest amount of light into the chamber around her.

As soon as the light came on, Red X looked up at her silent companion and smiled again.

"Hello, Terra. I hope you don't mind my coming to visit," she asked politely. Of course, her companion didn't respond, but then, that was a part of the young girl's charm. "I know I don't visit nearly as often as Ryouga, but do you think I could still ask you a favor?"

Again, Terra's silence spoke volumes. Red X smiled again, taking that silence as consent.

"Wonderful, I'm sure you won't mind keeping this little visit between the two of us, you know, just us girls?" She patted the stone girl's knee affectionately. "Thanks, Terra, that means a lot to me."

Finally, secure in her companion's confidentiality, Red X reached up . . .

And removed her mask.

Kasumi gasped for breath, as if she'd just broken the surface of an icy pool after a dive several seconds too long. She took several more long, shuddering breaths as she stared at the piece of material in her hand . . . before a rather harsh reality made itself known to her.

The young woman spat out a pained gasp and collapsed against Terra's leg, as the pain in her chest bloomed like a flower of flames. For several moments, the gentle woman clutched her agonized torso, trying to fight down the pain. Eventually . . . eventually, her breathing slowed to a more normal pace and she slowly sat up once more.

With reluctant hesitance, Kasumi touched the release button at the neck of her suit and gingerly unzipped the front of the suit down to her navel. She flinched slightly at the sensation of the zipper running across her skin, then cringed as she opened the top of the suit to reveal the massive expanse of bruises that covered her breasts and the space between them. Not feeling up to zipping the suit back up, she just leaned back against Terra's leg once more, breathing as shallowly as possible.

What had she been thinking, fighting Robin? She was no fighter, not really. She might have learned some of the skills and techniques, but she had never actually fought anyone before. It was hard to believe that she'd been lucky enough to avoid an injury like this so long. What if it had been Ryouga that had actually hit her . . . or heaven forbid, if Cyborg had? The young homemaker held no illusions of her ability to actually survive something like that.

How had it come to this? How had everything gotten so confusing?

For perhaps the first time in her life, Kasumi was completely frozen with fear. She could feel the Headmaster's claws hovering just over her neck, an uncomfortable energy trying desperately to consume her delicate skin with its hateful heat. The worst part was that she knew he would do it; he would kill her without hesitation if he felt the need. It was all she could do to keep her neck as still as possible, even as her hands trembled like leaves in the wind.

She felt hot tears spill down her cheeks as the terrible memory tore through her mind. The heart killing fear she had felt, the utter helplessness, the certain knowledge that she lived only at the whim of a psychopath . . .

The tension in her chest became nearly painful as she watched all of her loved ones close in around the Titans, preparing themselves to do what they felt needed to be done. All around the chamber, energies began to flare, pink, green, golden, black. She wanted to close her eyes, to squeeze them shut and block out the violence that seemed only moments away, but she just couldn't. In a matter of seconds, this room would be thrust into a brutal battle . . .

And it was all because of her!

Kasumi spun around, wrapping her arms around Terra, more desperate for companionship in that moment then she had ever been before. The fear and helplessness had been horrible, but it had been nothing compared to knowing that her weakness had nearly forced her family, her friends . . . to kill each other . . .

Never again!

Her shoulders hitched painfully and the pale stone of Terra's waist darkened under the gentle rain of her tears. It had been weeks ago that it had happened, and yet the memory of it still felt as fresh as a newly turned grave. It was several long minutes, like so many of the long, lonely nights she spent in the tower, that she allowed the bitter and shameful tears to flow.

Finally . . . finally the tears stopped, as they always did. She let out one last sniffle, before looking up in embarrassment.

"Oh, my! I'm so very sorry, Terra. This must be terribly embarrassing, having me crying on your shoulder when you hardly even know me. It was terribly rude of me to put you in such an uncomfortable position . . ." She trailed off at the absurdity of the situation.

Never again . . . That had been the single resounding ideal that had consumed her life since she had begun her life with the Titans. It wasn't like her life back in Nerima, where she was a player so minor that even the villains that wanted to hurt her family never noticed her. Here - here, the Headmaster had been kind enough to demonstrate, oh, so vividly, what the price of her weakness could be.

Her desire to help her new friends had been so great, that she hadn't even thought twice before hacking into their mainframe and searching for something – anything that could let her protect herself. Even now, she wasn't sure why she hadn't just approached the Titans, her new friends, and simply asked them for help. They obviously would have said yes and Cyborg, just as he boasted, could have created her something more suited to her and that wasn't a ticking time bomb . . .

And yet she hadn't . . . Even before she had known what she was doing, her nearly forgotten Hive Communicator had appeared in her hand in the dead of the night, as if by instinct. The encryptions that Cyborg had set up had seemed so simple to her, as if begging her to break them into kindling. She didn't know why that was either, Gizmo had always been terribly upset when she had broken his encryptions as well, but . . . it had all just been so easy.

It hadn't taken long to find out about the Red X suit. All of the warnings and dangers of the suit were clearly stated in Robin's files. In fact, for just that reason she had nearly passed it by. She almost had . . . but she had found her eyes drawn to it. She couldn't explain it, the frightful skull face, the morbid black . . . it was all so repulsive; yet it had seemed so perfect. Almost as if the suit had chosen her, rather than the other way around.

Waiting for Titans to leave the Tower had been painfully easy. With her access to the main computer core, it had been so very simple to disable all of the security between her and the vault in the third subbasement. The vault itself hadn't been any more of a problem. Of course, she had been slightly worried when Ryouga had noticed that a Hive Communicator had been used in the decryption, but they had all jumped to the conclusion that Nabiki had done it. She still felt somewhat bad about implicating her sister, but she was sure that Nabiki would forgive her for that.

Of course, getting the suit had been the easy part. It had taken her days just to figure out how to work it properly, even with Robin's plans sitting right before her. Even now, she knew it would be a long time before she could claim to have any mastery over it at all . . . if she actually dared to continue using it.

Getting in and out of the Tower hadn't proved to be any trouble at all, especially with the suits abilities and several small alterations to the security system. On that note, when she arrived back at the tower, she would have to mask the Xenothium's presence from the scanners, but that would be simple as we . . .

She sat back down, cradling her face in her hands. She was doing it again! Contemplating how to keep this a secret, deepening the lie between her and her friends. Surely, surely if she just went to Robin now and admitted everything, he wouldn't be too mad. She had just helped to save their friends . . .

"No . . ."

The voice surprised her, especially since it was her own. She looked up, a searching look in her eyes, before she looked back at the mask in her hand. No . . . no, Robin would most assuredly be angry with her if she revealed this to him now. And if he took the suit away now, then there would be no way for her to become adept enough to help them in the future.

That had been the most difficult step of all, now that she thought about it. Making sure that no one realized that it had been her. It was something that had very nearly slipped her mind completely as well. It hadn't been until the very moment that she had been staring down at Happosai and Robin, that first fateful night, that it had struck her.

If so much as the murmur of 'Oh, my' had crossed her lips at that second, all would have been for naught. It had all tumbled down on her at that very moment. If she acted in any way like herself, Robin and Happosai would have realized who she was as easily as if she had cooked them a delicious dinner and served it to them in her favorite apron!

In that moment, inspiration had struck her . . . only it hadn't felt like inspiration. More like some – some thing rising up from the depths, breaking free of her subconscious and shaking off the fetters of her morality as easily as a snake would shed its skin. In that instant, she had thought of what Nabiki would have said, what quip Jinx would have used, what body language Bumblebee would have tried . . .

It had been terribly hard for her, to fight her natural instincts and adopt the mannerisms of her classmates. And it still confused her why she had immediately fallen back to those three people. There were literally dozens of women she could have emulated: Shampoo, Ukyou, Kodachi, Akane . . . Good people, people that were still competent and dangerous without giving in to their dark sides. So why had she decided to play a villain instead?

It had been hard, perhaps the hardest thing she had ever done, lying to her friends, fighting with them, insulting and infuriating them . . . Except that it had gotten easier each time that she put on the mask. Every night, every hour, the quips came more easily, the teasing manner, the reckless behavior. Every time she had removed the mask, including this time, she was still shocked at the choices she had consciously made.

She still could not believe that she had almost injured Raven! She had been so furious after she had escaped the Titans, furious at Raven. She remembered the thoughts that had run through her head at that moment. She had recalled telling the younger girl, time and time again, to stay out of the missions. It was for her own good, after all. For just a second, just a fraction of a second even, she remembered thinking, 'it would serve her right; show her that I was right'.

It had been that very moment that she had realized that there was something seriously wrong. That one, tiny thought, had been enough to snap her out of her dark mood completely.

Kasumi glared at the offensive piece of material in her hand once again. She needed to tell Robin what she was doing. It was obvious to her, thanks to Nabiki's explanation, exactly what the problem was. She had no idea why it was happening like this, or where it would lead her, but it was obvious that it couldn't be a good place, wherever it was.

With a sigh of disgust, she threw the mask off into the darkness . . .

Or, at least she tried to . . . She looked down to her hand, still clutching the mask tightly, refusing to relinquish the artifact.

No, this was her problem . . . it would be rude of her to burden her friends with such a minor inconvenience. If she did tell them, it would only fill them with worry. She was certain that she would sort things out herself, eventually. Besides, if she told them, then they would take her-the, take the suit away. Then she wouldn't be able to help them, then she would be helpless again . . . then she would be weak again . . .

With a long sigh, she took a deep, painful breath and zipped the front of her suit up once more. She would have to be careful about using the suit in the future; hopefully she wouldn't need it at all. However, if anyone ever endangered her new family as they had her true family, this time they would find the eldest sister to be not so helpless after all.

With one last breath, she slid the mask back on.

Red X shook her head, before smiling widely. Slowly, mindful of the dull ache in her chest, she stood up and patted Terra on the shoulder in a friendly gesture. "Thanks, Terra, you're definitely the best listener I've ever met . . . even if I didn't exactly say much," she muttered teasingly.

"Don't worry though, I'll give Ryouga a good kick in the butt to make sure he gets you out of here sometime this century," she continued. She then looked up, lost in her musings for a moment. "It would be a good way to get Ryouga away from that overly-pretentious Raven girl. After all, we can't have Jinx coming back when she's finally ready, just to see that he's shacked up with another woman after all."."

Her smile never faltering, she brushed her hand across the stone girl's waist, wiping away the tears that marred the smooth surface. She hated being weak like that, but it was hard to be strong all the time . . . Ranma and Ryouga were the strongest people she knew, and even they had to cry from time to time.

Still, it would be a good idea to lay low for awhile. She could use the recovery time and she didn't want to take any unnecessary risks that Robin might figure out who she actually was. Besides, she had made a pretty good showing of herself earlier that night, she deserved a bit of a break.

With a casual wave to her stone companion, Red X began to make her way up the long tunnel to the surface. After all . . .

She had to have breakfast ready before everyone woke up again.

The young man slumped over the bar, dwelling on the horrible mess that his life had become in the insultingly short span of a single week. He lifted the half empty glass before him and knocked back it's dark, burning contents in a single swallow. With a gruff bark, he ordered another from the purveyor of drinks behind the bar. The old man stared at him oddly for a moment, before shrugging and handing him another tall drink.

Right at that very moment, as he choked down the entire glass in a single draught, he bitterly tried to determine what was the greater defeat that had been dealt to him. Was it the fact that, after months of planning and an undisclosed amount of money which he had spent on the heist, that he found out that the item he had sought for so long had been missing . . .

Or was it the bitter, bitter pill that his underage status wouldn't even let him get blind, stinking drunk over it! He ordered another Dr. Pepper and tossed the bendy straw away as soon as the drink appeared before him. It joined a pile of its fallen brethren on the floor to his side, a sticky mess which the cafe's waitress was probably waiting for him to leave before she cleaned up.

Oh, he hadn't given up right away, that went against his very nature as both a thief and as a professional thief. He had tracked the Titans every night since then, following them out on every call, every mission, no matter how small. He'd followed the Japanese girl to the market, he'd watched Cyborg cruise around the city for fun, he'd tailed Starfire on her trips to the mall, he'd delved to the depths of the cavern that the Japanese boy seemed to love so much.

And then he'd followed Robin on his hunt for that old geezer.

And he'd seen it! He'd seen the suit. It was the last place he had ever imagined it would be, draped across the incredible body of some fine, fine, woman like a second skin. As soon as that had happened, his initial excitement had returned and even increased, if possible.

But it wasn't to be! He'd done everything he could think of to track her: shadowing, witnesses, tracers attached from afar, but nothing seemed to work. Witnesses were never reliable as soon as Red X left their line of sight. The tracers stopped working as soon as they contacted to suit, likely a defense that Robin put in himself to avoid just that kind of thing. Shadowing her had proved useless as well. No matter how well he concealed himself, no matter how close he got, the suits powers always let her slip away!

And the one time, the one time that he had been sure that he'd had her, she'd literally vanished right before his eyes. As long as the suit had been in one place, it had been a simple plan to retrieve it. But now that it was being worn by someone that was doing everything in her power to avoid being followed or captured by the Titans . . . well, it seemed much less possible with every minute that passed.

The burning sensation of the Dr. Pepper sloshing down his throat did nothing to alleviate his pain.

But then . . . something odd happened . . .

He turned slightly to take in the young woman that had taken the stool directly beside his own. His first reaction, of course, was to boggle slightly at the girl's figure. The rather upscale blouse and skirt she wore, white and black respectively, only accentuated her taut and toned physique. However, as his gaze rose up to her face, a feeling of fear and recognition began to settle in his stomach like a lead weight.

The girl had sharp, aristocratic features and her hair was held up high in a tight ponytail. He didn't pretend to know the girl's name, but he knew who she was. She was one of them, one of the girls that had come over from Japan, the very same group of girls that had revealed the secret entrance to him. The only thing that prevented him from bolting right then and there was the innate knowledge that there was just no way that she could have possibly known who he was.

Of course, his innate knowledge was blown to heck, when the girl suddenly turned to face him, a superior smirk on her proud features. Suddenly, and in a normal speaking voice, as if the two of them were the only ones in the cafe, she spoke.

"You… are a thief."

He nearly spat a mouthful of Dr. Pepper right in the girl's face, right then and there! Instead, by sheer force of will, he kept the carbonated beverage within his mouth, even though it burned his sinuses and nearly forced its way down his windpipe. After an excruciating coughing fit, he finally calmed down enough to look her in the eye again.

If the girl was at all surprised or put out by his display, well, she didn't show it at all. He took a further moment to wipe his mouth on his sleeve, trying vainly to regain his composure as he stared at the enigmatic girl.

"That's a pretty harsh thing to say to someone you've never met before," he replied finally.

The girl nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving his. "Indeed, it would be. However, I have been observing you for several days now. Thus, I feel as if I already know you . . ."

"And, you are a thief."

He was not so caught off guard this time, but he still sputtered angrily at her brazen declarations. He leaned in close to the girl, who failed to flinch or give even an inch at his rapid intrusion of her personal space, and growled harshly.

"Would you stop saying that?"

That did get a reaction, unfortunately it was only a small widening in her superior smirk. "But it is true, is it not?" she asked politely, one of her eyebrows arching alluringly.

He glared around the room quickly, before he noticed that no one was really paying them any attention. Or, that at the very least no one was taking them seriously at all. Still, he kept his voice low and slid closer to her on his stool.

"What if it is? You think that you can bring me in?" he muttered threateningly.

Suddenly, her face broke into a look of surprise that was so obviously manufactured, that he very nearly applauded. "Bring you in? Now why ever would I do that?" she asked innocently.

Then suddenly her shocked looked evaporated into a deadly serious gaze and she leaned in so closely that he could feel her breath on his cheek.

"After all, I spent ever so much time following the Titans, just trying to find an enemy of theirs that seemed competent. At first I thought that that Red X harlot would suit my needs, but she is obviously foolish and unprofessional," she whispered quietly into his ear.

That brought him up short, his accusing rant dying on his tongue. He could only stare at her, total incomprehension on his face.

"You see," she whispered, her voice turning to velvet. "My life bores me terribly, I have tried so many things to alleviate that boredom: my plants, my gymnastics, my dearest Ranma, but none of them have worked.

But then I saw that Tendo-hussy's older sister in the academy. Oh the fun she was having! She was playing with fire as if it was her god given right, and only her enemies were burned. I knew then, at that moment, that I wanted to play like that as well."

He was forced to lean back, when the girl's soft lips nearly brushed against his earlobe. Not out of fear, but out of fear of what he might start thinking. He had no idea where this strange, alluring girl was going, but if he let himself get played like he knew she was trying to play him, he likely wouldn't care soon enough.

"So where do I come in?" he asked in the calmest voice he could muster in the face of this beautiful Nightshade.

The girl manufactured an innocent pout for just a moment, before leaning back into her own seat as well. She then matched his intense expression again. "I don't know if you are the Titan's enemy or not, but after watching you, I know that you are skilled. More so than any thug brained villain or common minded brawler, you are a professional. As such . . .I want you to join me, to teach me how to live truly above the law."

He stared at her in wonder . . . mostly wonder if she was totally insane or not. Still, she – it, it was a tempting offer. Still, he loved to play hard to get. Finally feeling his confidence return, he leaned casually onto the counter and looked back at her, a smile growing on his lips.

"You want me to join you? Don't you have that backwards, cutie?"

The girl's superior smirk descended into an icy sneer at the nickname. Instantly, a small . . . wand? . . . appeared in her hand, a length of ribbon wrapped down its length and on into her sleeve. Before he could even follow the movement that made it appear, the end of the stick was pressing rather precariously into his trachea. He swallowed nervously . . .

Whoever she was, she was fast!

"You will refer to me as Kodachi-sama, do you understand?" she asked, her voice sending chills down his spine, and not the good kind either.

He could only nod in response. An instant later, and the ribbon-stick was gone again. He refused to give her the satisfaction of rubbing his throat, so instead he just resumed his casual lean.

"Fine then, Kodachi-sama, suppose I do join you? What's in it for me? I'm the professional here, I already know the ropes. How does saddling myself with a rookie like you benefit me at all? You don't seem like the type to be satisfied with a fifty fifty split," he inquired, only slightly bitingly.

If anything, that only brought the superior smile back in full force. "You misunderstand my intentions, Mr. Thief. I have no interest in petty things such as 'cutting into your share'. I am only interested in . . . enjoying myself," she trailed off a bit seductively.

"I am the heiress of the Kunou fortune, if you side with me, then you gain access to money, equipment, weapons, anything that might be useful in making our lives as exciting as possible."

His eyes very nearly bugged out of his head at that! She was insane! His smile slowly widened. She was his kind of insane. She was the perfect partner, someone that wasn't even interested in the profit. She was a thrill seeker, an adrenaline junky, just like him. Even better, she was a gymnast, that could be useful in several very different ways. He nearly laughed, she'd give him anything he wanted, just so long as he could keep her from being bored? His smile widened until it very nearly hurt his face.

It was pretty obvious that he was doing a poor job of concealing his excitement. Kodachi leaned in, a smoky look in her eyes. "So, what is your answer?" she purred invitingly.

"Heh, I think my answer if obvious," he replied smoothly.

The cultured and refined young woman smiled, leaning back in her seat. The look on her face seemed to remind him of a cat which had just cornered its first canary. But, then, there were much, much worse cats to be caught by. "So then, my new friend. You know to call me Kodachi-sama, but what shall I call you?" she asked politely.

He winked then, and ordered another pair of drinks.

"You can call me . . . Partner."