Hey I finished the first chapter early! Yay creative zen!
I apologize in advance if this chapter jumps around a lot, beginning any story is hard.
I will probably rewrite the entire chapter eventually anyway because I never like how I start my stories but I am my own worst critic.
Thank you everyone who reviewed the short prologue. I know it wasn't much but I appreciate the feedback it helps keep me going!
Side note: Writing the first chapter got rid of the writers block for my novel, funny that. So now I'm working on two stories…shrug I like multitasking lol
Hope you Enjoy, please review!
-Edited-
Formatted down some of the larger blocks of text, didnt think it was that bad until i read over it myself lol - also changed Raven's home 'world' to dimension or plane, its been a LONG time since i've seen Teen Titans so i may have some of my facts wrong, thanks for the correction
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Flashback Chapter One
-Present Day-
The common room was dark even though it was six in the morning and the sun was already beginning to rise, though one would only know the sun was rising on a day like this out of habit, thick storm clouds shrouded the whole of Jump City from the sun's rays as a steady rain fell from the sky. Inside the common room even felt a little chilly today as the raindrops pit-patted against the window on one side of the tower, driven by the steady wind the storm had brought.
Sitting in the lotus position facing the windows as the rain fell was Raven, were you to walk in on her right now you would think she was meditating but for now, she wasn't – having already done that for about an hour – she simply sat there watching the rain fall. Not many realized that this was the closest thing that raven could call a hobby besides reading, she loved watching the rain fall, loved the sound it made, and loved how peaceful it made her feel.
She sat with her hood down and eyes closed listening to the rain, her head tilted back every so slightly letting her deep violet hair hang loosely to the nape of her neck. Her pale skin almost made her look like a cloud that had become lost from the storm above in the half light that filled the common room. Being the only one who seems to pay attention to the weather in the tower so she knew that this storm was going to hit this morning, and the lack of light would cause everyone but Robin to sleep in a little more.
Robin being the exception as well…he's robin, there is probably like fifteen alarm clocks in his room set to the same time. Raven allowed herself a small smile to this thought as it was probably true.
Lightning suddenly struck somewhere in the ocean, briefly illuminating the common room and surprising raven enough that the remote controls on the coffee table shook for a moment, a few seconds later the sound of distant thunder could be heard. Raven opened her eyes, the weather man said it would rain with a chance of thunder storms and it appeared one was rolling in as another lightning bolt struck somewhere closer, the thunder being only a second or so delayed that time. Raven stood up and continued to stare out the window a moment, she had gotten up to go back to her room but something about this storm was interesting, something was keeping her watching it. She was aware of the door to the common room sliding open and Robin entered, she could tell it was him from the emotions he broadcasted.
"Raven." He said a little surprised to see her up and out of her room, "good morning."
"Good morning." Raven replied keeping her eyes on the sky outside of the tower.
"You're up early." Robin observed as he opened the fridge looking for a snack to tie him over until Cyborg made breakfast.
"That happens sometimes." Raven said in a monotone voice, not really wanting to talk at the moment. The ever perceptive Robin must have gotten the hint because the only reply to that was a grunt as he grabbed a bottle of orange juice, closed the fridge and sat at the table. There was another flash of lightning outside somewhere that lit up the still dim common room that was followed almost immediately by another flash, and another, and another. Now Robin was on his feet as the room began flashing like they were under attack by the paparazzi as he looked out the window and saw where the flashes were coming from – and it was hard to miss, lightning bolts were practically raining down in the sky onto one spot in what looked like the waterfront edge of the industrial district of Jump City.
"There's no thunder…" Robin said when suddenly the flashing came to a head in a brilliant white flash that left the two Titans somewhat blinded just before a tremendous 'BOOM' hit the tower hard enough that the whole building shook from the shockwave.
"There's your thunder." Raven said blinking rapidly to try and get the spots in her eyes to go away, the door to the common room flew open and Cyborg, Starfire, and a half dressed Beast Boy all stumbled into the room.
"What was that?!" Cyborg yelled.
"Dude, you don't have to yell." Beast Boy glared at his friend as he stuck an arm through a sleeve.
"Quiet!" Robin interrupted, "I don't know what that was but I intend think we should find out that was too big of an explosion to miss." Robin was interrupted by the tower alarm going off a moment later, he grumbled, picked up the remote and switched on the TV which disabled the alarm and showed the mayor's desk with a very panicked mayor behind it.
"What on earth was that noise?!" He demanded, "A training exercise gone wrong?!"
"I don't know sir, but we intend to find out." Robin said and looked to the titans, all of whom nodded except Beast Boy, who was having trouble with the zipper in back.
"You mean it wasn't you?" the mayor looked terrified for a moment before screaming, "Were all going to die!" and the screen went blank.
"I believe our mayor is what one might call, a Queen of Drama." Starfire observed.
"Right." Robin tossed the Remote onto the couch, "Cyborg, take the T-car and sweep the streets around the industrial district for anything out of pleace., it looked like that's where the explosion came from. Raven and Beast Boy survey from the air and see what you can find starting at the north side. Starfire and I will start from the southern end." Robin looked them over quickly to make sure they understood before his classic "Titans, GO!" and everyone ran off – Cyborg and Robin and Starfire to the garage and Raven and the now fully dressed Beast Boy to the roof, both of whom quickly took to the air, one as a hawk.
Cyborg, Robin and Starfire arrived and began searching their areas first as Beast Boy and Raven were hampered in their search by the wind and rain. It didn't help that the industrial district was the most run down part of the city making it almost blend in with the clouds and rain in places. Each rooftop from Beast Boy and Raven's view looked almost exactly like the last, just differing in size and shape. As they searched for almost ten minutes with nothing Beast Boy flew down landing lightly on the street and shifted back to his normal form followed by a puzzled Raven landing next to him.
"What are you doing? We can cover more ground from the air." She said, annoyed that she was out in the rain in the first place.
"I smelled something." Beast Boy said as he looked around, trying to place what exactly he smelled, "I cant smell as well as a hawk they have good eyes, not a good nose." He grinned and shifted into a green hound dog. He sniffed the concrete for a moment, then the air, then ran off down the street.
"Of course you smelled something this whole district smells." Raven muttered and flew after him. She was right of course, the combination of industrial waste and leftovers from manufacturing plants gave the whole district its own unique taint and wondered how Beast Boy could pick a single scent from this mess of a city but knew that she should trust in his abilities, they had never failed him in the past.
Beast Boy however was running like he had accidentally sniffed up some drugs, he ran down the street, the right into an alley, then left out of the ally onto a different street which he ran across cutting off a car in the process and left into a different alleyway. He then turned right and sprinted down the alley and back out onto yes another street where se stopped and shifted back to his normal form as Raven caught up to him.
"You know you almost got hit by a car ri" – Raven stopped what she was saying as she looked where Beast Boy was looking. In the middle of what during the day was a heavily used street was a small smoking crater. Both Beast Boy and Raven ran over to the hole, which was slightly larger than beast boy and about a foot deep and looked at the broken road. Raven whipped out her communicator and informed the rest of the team that they had found where the explosion took place and that the crater was smaller than it should be for an explosion that loud, Robin said he and the others would be there as soon as possible and the little screen went blank.
"I don't like this." Beast Boy said as he looked away from the hole in the road to Raven, "Whatever made this whole reeks of death and something else."
"What else?" Raven blinked, there wasn't much that Beast Boy couldn't identify.
"I don't know, but I don't like it." The Changeling said and shifted back to a bloodhound to sniff around the crater some more. But it was Raven who first noticed that red streak in the crater itself and as the rain began to slow to a drizzle from torrents of water that were pouring down before, raven noticed there were several more red streaks leading away from the crater, beast boy sniffing at the one closest to the crater itself.
"Its blood." Best boy said having shifted back to his normal self, Raven simply nodded.
"Looks like it leads away from the place where the impact itself happened, lets check it out." Raven said, "The rest of the team wont be here for a few more minutes."
"Don't worry, The great Beast Boy will protect you from whatever monsters lurk in the rainy streets!" Beast Boy proclaimed as he flexed for the camera he could see in his mind, earning a solid roll of the eyes from Raven before they both began following the trail of blood.
--
Tyler lay in the middle of a small crater while the rain poured down onto him and had to turn his head to avoid drowning in the heavy rainfall. Around him the asphalt and concrete sizzled a bit from the cool water that was pouring onto it but soon stopped as the road itself cooled back to normal temperature. Ty coughed and tried to push himself up to a sitting position, which was probably not the smartest move in the world as the pain from where that last Echrid had bit him lanced through his body. Falling back onto his back he gritted his teeth, he knew he had to get to Titans Tower now or he was done for. While an Echrid's poison was treatable it was still dangerous and would eventually kill him if he did not get it removed from his body.
Gritting his teeth through the pain Ty forced himself to his feet instantly feeling a little nauseous but summoning some last reserve of willpower he was able to keep himself from retching and remain standing at the same time. Taking a deep breath Tyler put one foot forward, than another, and another, then fell back to the road just outside of the crater where he had landed. He groaned from the pain the Echrid bit was causing, maybe the toxins in his system were spreading faster than he thought. Forcing himself to his feet again Tyler drew on his heritage and brought what little magic he had left into the control runes on his armor to reinforce his own failing strength.
But even this technique was only able to get him just past the sidewalk into the brush that was part of another buildings landscaping before his own power gave out and he collapsed again, except this time he did not make any movements to get back up.
So there he was, laying face down as he continued to bleed out from his wound, praying for a miracle. The steady rain coming down on him was the only thing keeping his mind from drifting into the abyss and never coming back. I can't fail…he thought weakly, but knew at this point the choice was of failure or success was no longer in his hands. I won't fail! He thought again trying to summon enough willpower to be able to at least turn over, but his body refused to obey him, the poison was moving faster than he thought. But just before he resigned himself to simply die and be done with it he heard something coming from behind him:
"Don't worry, The great Beast Boy will protect you from whatever monsters lurk in the rainy streets!"
Beast boy? Dad?! Maybe if he found him he would be okay after all, there was hope!
Struggling to even move Tyler tried to call out for help but the only thing that came from his throat was garbled words. Tears began to fall from his eyes mixing with the water and mud already on his face, he wanted to call for help but he didn't have the strength – his previous battle leaving him totally and utterly spent. Common Tyler your stronger than that, you have something left! USE IT! His mind screamed at him, This is not the end and I will not die here!
"Help!" He cried with the last of his strength, "He…lp…please!" And that day fate would not let him die, Raven heard his plea.
"Beast Boy over here!" She called as she used her powers to move a bush the poor boy had apparently fallen on out of the way. She then pressed a special button that would alert the other titans who were not there yet that there would be injured people.
"Whoa what happened?!" Beast Boy said when he caught up to Raven, seeing a boy laying on the ground covered in a mix of caked on mud and blood in parts, "Heh….help.." he whimpered.
"I don't know." Raven said, "Help me turn him over, careful of his neck."
Beast boy nodded and using techniques they had learned from medical training Robin had made all of them take, were able to turn the boy over onto his back. Raven then put up a shield using her powers over the boy so that the rain would not interfere with his breathing. Raven instictavly tried to use her healing powers on the boy but as soon as her hands touched his armor there was a crackle of electricity and recoiled back a few paces, why had her healing power been repelled? That had never happened before.
"My healing powers wont work for him…apparently." She said with a surprised look.
"Ugh! Where are they, we don't have anything to help him." Beast Boy said and looked back to the road as his pointy ears perked up, "Finally, I'll run and guide them here."
Raven nodded as her teammate took of through the underbrush back to the road, this kid had made it pretty far into the large planter. She looked back to the boy who was still crying and she didn't know why, but she felt the overbearing urge to comfort the child.
No harm in that she thought and kneeled next to him, putting her hand on his shoulder.
"Shh…" She said, "We found you now, everything is going to be okay." She said to him and the boy opened his eyes looking right into Ravens. She didn't know why but as soon as she saw his eyes she felt something was oddly out of place with his boy, almost familiar but still out of place. But such thoughts were instantly banished to the backburner of Ravens mind as Cyborg and Starfire came charging through the brush carrying a stretcher followed by Robin and Beast Boy, the latter of which was carrying an emergency supplies back that was kept in the T-car.
"Beast Boy hand me the kit." Robin commanded and after a moment of rummaging through the sack Beast Boy handed Robin a strip of gauze and liquid antiseptic. While Robin was dressing the wound the boy let out another anguished cry from the brief pain the antiseptic has caused but it was needed to clear the wound from infection. The brief cry of pain was like pins into her heart, why did she care so much?
"Robin something is up." Cyborg said suddenly bringing Raven back to reality, "Something is in him my sensors cant tell if it's poison or what. We need to get him to the tower fast or we're going to lose him."
"Right, Raven Do you think you can teleport yourself Cyborg and the boy to the Tower?" Robin asked knowing she could.
"Easily." She blinked.
"Do it, the rest of us will meet you back there." Robin said. Raven simply gave a nod as blackness engulfed the three and an instant later they were gone.
In the tower medical bay that same moment Raven, Cyborg and the injured boy appeared with the boy being softly set onto one of the beds. Cyborg went to work quickly, as Raven tried to put a few vital sensors onto the boy but found the only place that was not covered in armor was the boy's head and the place on his side where something had punctured through the rune covered armor itself.
"Forget the sensors for now, we have to figure out what this poison is or this kid is doomed." Cyborg said as the boy began to squirm around.
"Echrid…they're coming…Mother!" Raven levitated a sedative from the table right into the boy's neck and almost instantly he calmed down. "He's beginning to hallucinate." She stated as she studied his armor, why was it covered with runes?
"Common!" Cyborg said in the background as he hit one of the machines that was scanning the boy's blood, across its screen was a big 'unknown' in red letters and Cyborg did not want to have someone die on him, especially a child as young looking as this one.
While she knew she should be helping Cyborg try to sort out what was killing the young boy her eyes kept being drawn back to the runes on the boy's armor. Then suddenly she saw it, one of the runes on his chest plate she recognized immediately as the Azarathian symbol of life.
"Holy…" Raven didn't even know what to say, the symbol was defiantly one from Azarath but how could that be? "Cyborg I think I know how to heal him."
"What?" he blinked, now was not the time for indecision and his machines were not coming up with anything. So Raven must have found something significant, "what have you got?" he said.
"I don't know how and I don't know what all of them mean but these symbols all over his armor are Azarathian Runes. And this one here on his chest plate means life. I think if I focus my healing power into that symbol it will help heal him, when I tried earlier it didn't work and this might be why." Raven said and held one hand over the rune and looked to Cyborg, who nodded to let her know that he had her back in case something bad happened.
Raven closed her eyes and concentrated, a moment later her hand began to give off a bluish glow that spread over her fingers and palm and once the healing energy had reached its peak, she opened her eyes and placed her hand over the life run on the boy's armor. Instantly there was the feeling of something being forcibly sucked out of her, as the rune charged with the healing energy and distributed it across the armor in a web like pattern.
Cyborg watched closely as the boy's wounds seeped a clear liquid for a few seconds before closing up entirely leaving only a small scar which was covered by the armor itself a moment later. The healing webs then flew across the boy's body seeking another wound to heal and when none was found the power sped back to the life rune under Raven's hand giving all the excess power back to the owner – causing Raven to recoil back a few paces for the second time today only this time Cyborg was there to catch her – She caught her breath for a moment before realizing that healing a severe wound on that boy only took not even one fourth of the power she would normally have to use to heal a simple bruise on any of her other team mates. Something was defiantly different about this boy.
"Are you okay?" Cyborg asked, still hold onto Raven's shoulders.
"Yes." She said, "But something is defiantly different about this child. It took almost nothing to heal him completely and then returned the extra energy back to me." Raven seemed baffled by what had happened.
"Well, according to my scanners whatever was poisoning him isn't in his body anymore so whatever you did, it worked." Cyborg smiled and closed the panel on his arm.
"But that's the thing, it worked too well, I'm not that talented of a healer and that rune on his chest…" Raven paused, the rune was no longer on his chest, and instead it had been replaced with just the dark silver armor, various other runes around where it was whose meaning was unknown to her. "Is no longer there…" she said now completely confused.
But the facts where there, whatever Ravens power had done with that armor the runes had reacted and multiplied the power almost three times. The proof was in the boy himself as his almost white skin was now colored grayer like her skin, and his green hair was even clean of the mud that was stuck in it from before.
"Something is not right here." She said, "I need to go look up the meaning of these runes, can you please scan his armor and forward the image to the television in my room?" she asked and Cyborg nodded, he knew that only Raven would know what those runes meant anyway so no one else except maybe Robin would care.
Speaking of which.
A minute or two after Raven had left the medical bay Robin, Beast Boy, and Starfire all came bursting through the door.
"Is he alright?" Robin asked.
"Yes, yes." Cyborg laughed, "He's fine, whoever he is. He's also wearing armor that raven thinks may be from her home planet or something. I'm going to do a deep scan of it in a moment for her and send her what it finds so she can study it."
"Umm, don't you think that kid will mind if you just start scanning him?" Beast Boy pointed out.
"Probably but Raven gave him a sedative before she healed him so he'll be out for ohh…" Cyborg picked up the empty syringe and looked at the side of the tube. "Another three to four hours at least."
"So the strange child will be okay?" Starfire asked.
"Yeah he should be fine later on." Cyborg smile and turned to assemble his scanning equipment.
"Glorious!" Starfire cheered, "I would hate for one so young to fall into the void of Glonthalark."
Everybody stopped for a moment to try and process what Starfire had said before Robin saved them with a, "Yeah me too." And they both walked out of the room as Starfire rambled on about her home planets customs.
Beast boy however stayed behind with Cyborg in the Medical Bay staring at the unconscious boy on the table. He just couldn't shake the feeling that he should know who this boy is. Now he had green hair just like Beast Boy, which he thought was awesome but the rest of his features were completely different. Obviously dolt it's not like your related to him or anything. He chastised himself in his head for thinking on that low of a level.
"What's up BB?" Cyborg said getting a surprised squeak out of Beast Boy who had forgotten that he was there.
"Oh nothing man." He played it cool, "Just weird seeing someone so young get so hurt I guess, it's not something I'm used to. Any idea what did this to him?"
"Not yet that's part of the reason why I'm going to do a deep scan of his armor, might give a clue or two." Cyborg said as he lifted the scanning unit from its drawer and set it on the rails on either side of the bed. With a flick of a switch the machine hummed to live as many different buttons and screens lit up on it, Cyborg then began the process of calibrating the machine to scan only the boy's armor and not any deeper – he was after all a respecter of the privacy of strangers.
"Just between you and me man, I hope I'm never used to seeing people that hurt, especially kids like this." Cyborg said as he flicked switches here and there, watching the main screen till he got the result he wanted.
"Me neither man." Beast Boy shook his head, "Hey what are all these weirdly cool markings on his armor?"
"Don't know, Raven is looking into that as they are apparently some sort of markings from her home Dimension, Azar I think it's called." Cyborg said while turning a knob ever so slowly to the left.
"What?" Beast Boy blinked, "Wasn't that like blown up by Trigon or something?"
"Something like that, I cant remember exactly what Raven told us back when all that Demon stuff went down." Cyborg chuckled.
"Huh, Raven's in her room then I suppose?" Beast Boy said as he slipped from the room.
"Yes but don't bother her." Cyborg said in a I-know-your-not-going-to-listen-to-me-anyway sort of tone but the only one who heard him was the walls, Beast Boy had already left.
Beast Boy walked briskly down the halls of the tower with one question on his mind, who was this boy and why did he seem familiar? Okay well two questions; let's be honest lots of questions – like how come whenever he ordered a vegetarian pizza the stupid heads at the pizza joint always put sausage on it?! – But the first two were the only ones that mattered to him right now. Making it to Ravens door Beast Boy stood in front of it for a moment, he knew that if he entered without knocking that Raven would be upset and probably throw him out against the opposite wall.
Then again if he knocked he knew that she would either not answer the door at all until he pestered her long enough that she would open the door just long enough to throw him against the aforementioned wall again before closing the door. Or she would just glare at him and close the door again. Either way he thought it would be best if he just knocked on the door as that option had the smallest chance of him being thrown out the window. But just before he knocked on her door it slid open to reveal Raven who was already half glaring at him, this was not good.
"What do you want?" Raven monotonely asked.
"Eh-heh…how did you know I was here?" Beast Boy grinned stupidly.
"I'm an Empath Beast Boy that means I can sense people emotions and you have the emotional signature nuclear explosion." She stated, but didn't get the response she wanted as Beast Boy's grin grew even wider.
"You just made a joke!" He exclaimed, "And it was funny!"
Raven opened her mouth to say something but just closed it again because after thinking a moment about it, she knew Beast Boy was right.
Drats.
"Dude this is a milestone for you! we should call the mayor and declare it Raven made a joke day! All government employees can have the day off! In fact everyone gets the day off! And we'll have a parade and-
"BEAST BOY!" Raven shouted silencing the little green changeling immediately. "What do you want?"
"Eh-heh." He squeaked, "I was just wondering if you've found anything out about that boy yet? Cyborg said that the strange markings on his armor were from your home dimension."
"Cyborg heard wrong." Raven said immediately, she hated lying to her friends, but in this instance she made an exception as she didn't want to talk about Azar at the moment.
"Err…ok then." Beast boy rubbed the back of his head, unsure what to say now, "So is there anything I can do to help?"
Raven blinked, was Beast Boy actually offering help? This was something she wasn't expecting. Should she let him help her look for the meanings of the runes?
"Err…" Raven stammered, "No thanks…I'm fine." She lied and quickly shut the door in his face.
Beast Boy stood there a moment longer a little more confused than when he had arrived, and then shook his head and walked back to the common room to play games.
Raven meanwhile leaned against her locked door for a moment while she sorted out her thoughts. Why had Beast Boy come to help her? More importantly was why had she refused his help? She then could not come up with a valid reason why she had refused to let him help her so she began to list off the reasons Beast Boy was not good help; firstly he knew nothing about Azarathian runes or how they worked, secondly he would not even begin to know where to look in Raven's vast collection of books for any kind of answer, thirdly he would probably get distracted by something shiny and leave, and finally he would be a distraction to her with his personality and good looks.
Raven nodded to herself and took a step forward but froze in mid stride as all of the traffic that were the thoughts in her head came screeching to a halt. Had she just thought that Beast Boy was good looking? Somewhere in the back of her head she could hear her emotions Happy and Affection giggling, note to file: punish happy and affection.
A beeping from the small flat panel TV Raven had bought a few months back told her that Cyborg had finished scanning the boy's armor and the results were waiting in her email inbox. Robin had questioned why she wanted her own TV back when she had bought it and she justified it by telling him she wanted to use it as a larger computer screen, which was half true. Using her powers to manipulate the computer Raven opened up her inbox and then the images from Cyborg's scan of the boy's armor but wasn't ready for what she found.
The armor that boy was wearing looked to be a combination of technology and magic – the metal itself having only a few mechanical parts with the majority of the armor being covered in runes. There were even some runes hidden in between the sheets of metal and inlaid into the metal itself in some parts. There could be no doubt about it this armor was not normal and neither was this boy, but while she was flipping through the images she suddenly stopped as one rune that was inlaid into the armor displayed on the screen in a computer drawn green wire mesh.
Using her powers she snuffed what little lights were on in her room out and stared open mouthed at the rune on the screen making sure she was seeing it right. The rune itself was cut into the inside of the boy's chest plate right over his heart and was vaguely circular in shape, to parallel lines inside the circle went from top to bottom with just enough space between them for the three characters that had caught her eye in the first place.
Azarath on top
Metrion in the middle
Zinthos on the bottom
Holy Moses. Raven thought, the boy not only was wearing specialized Azarathian armor, but if her translation of those symbols were accurate. No he couldn't have powers like hers it wasn't possible. No one else in the universe had powers like hers because she had never met anyone else who was part demon, half demon more specifically. This just shouldn't be possible unless this was some sort of plot by Trigon in an attempt to come back to earth and exact his revenge. But no, she had banished him so completely he could not come back and she knew that – nothing was making any sense anymore. Another half -Demon in town? Raven just couldn't swallow that for some reason, she needed to talk to somebody, and she needed to tell the others about this…now.
Sometimes having control over magic was a great blessing as Raven simply grabbed her laptop and phased through the ceiling appearing in the middle of the common room. Anyone except those who knew Raven would have been scared about the fact that she suddenly appeared from a black portal in the floor but in the Titans home this was a normal occurrence. She looked around and spotted Beast Boy enthralled in a video game of some kind, Robin and Starfire were sitting at the table talking to each other seemingly unaware of the world around them and Cyborg was in the kitchen making a ham and ham and beef and ham and chicken and ham and cheese and ham sandwich. Cyborg was also the only one who noticed Raven appear and gave her a friendly wave and hello.
"Hey," She responded, "Shouldn't someone be watching the kid we found?"
"Nah" Cyborg said as he took a bite from his monster sandwich, "That sedative you gave him will keep him out for a few hours. Besides I got him on my arm." He grinned and flipped open his arm panel to show a little screen that was a camera view from the top of the medical bay and a perfect view of the kid.
"I really think someone should be guarding him." Raven said again with a little more fervor in her tone; Robin did not miss this as he knew Raven had been studying the armor.
"Raven, what did you find?" He said after holding a hand up so Starfire would stop talking as well, even Beast Boy paused the game he was playing to look back.
"Nothing good." She said and held a hand out to the massive TV on the wall, a moment later the wires to the Game Station unplugged themselves from the back of the TV rolling up neatly on the floor under the wall mounted screen and Raven's lap top floated over landing on the floor next to the TV. Wires then shot out from the laptop plugging into the right outlets and a minute or so later, the pictures from scanned armor appeared on the screen. Raven sat on the couch and hit the arrow key on the keyboard to flip through the pictures until she got to the one she was looking for, the symbols of her mantra and stared at them for a minute still unable to believe what she was looking at.
"What is it that has caused such great alarm?" Starfire asked after some time had past.
Raven sighed knowing she should have thought of some way to explain the foundations of her powers to her friends without having to open herself up too much, there was still a lot she wanted to remain hidden about herself.
"Basicly," Raven started, "This rune on the inside of his armor means he potentially has the same powers as I do." She let that sink in for a moment as her friends eyes all stared at the rune then back at her, "Those three symbols in the middle are what made it obvious, the top one is 'Azarath' the middle 'Metrion' the final 'Zinthos'. The whole rune itself would be designed to act as a conduit for the wearers power, focusing it for much more controlled or powerfull use."
"So he controls his power through the symbols on his armor?" Robin asked.
"Mostly yes, If his powers function like mine the runes allow him to control his power directly through the runes across him. I've only read about this being done with users of other kinds of magic and never heard or read about this technique being used to control demon magic, usually its used with elemental magic's and such." Raven said, she was being honest about that part she only had ever read about it being used with any form of magic but her own – demon magic she assumed was too volatile to be used through those techniques. "We need to know if this kid is human." She finished.
"What else could he be?" Beast boy asked, a little confused.
"Yeah." Cyborg chimed in, "If he is human he could potentially be form Azarath right?"
Raven nodded
"And if he's not human then…" Robin looked to Raven.
Raven took a deep breath to calm her now frayed nerves, it was bad enough they were all talking about her destroyed home plane but now it was beginning to delve into subjects she would just as soon leave alone.
"The Azarathians were a race of superstitious folk, psychics, and some magicians, but any magic that was allowed was celestial in nature, using positive energy. My magic, because of well…what I am," she said a little uncomfortably, "is Negative energy and those words aren't just words, they are words that help me control my power because of the power they carry. This Boy's armor is apparently imbued with the same words which must bean his power is similar to mine."
Raven looked over her friends and saw Robin and Cyborg both nodding, as they completely understood while Starfire and Beast Boy both looked completely lost. Raven sighed as she was afraid she might have gone a little overboard with her explanation and tried again.
"If this boy uses the same powers I use," she said a little slower not only for her friends benefit but so she might believe it as well "This boy may be part demon as well."
She let that sink in for a few minutes while she gauged her friend's reactions. Robin as she had predicted showed nothing of what he was feeling, Cyborg looked like a mixture of concern and something else. Starfire was trying to figure out what this meant for the team if there was another demon in town and Beast Boy was…staring out the window at the ocean. Raven felt more than a little miffed about the fact that he was ignoring something potentially so important when the green changeling turned back to the group and asked, "Does anyone else get a weird feeling around that kid? Like you should know who he is already but you don't or something, I swear I'm having De-ja-vu or something."
All the Titans just looked at him and shook their heads, including Raven even though what he just described was exactly how she felt when she looked at the kid, but the other Titans, Beast Boy included did not need to know about that. However the fact that he was feeling the same thing she felt was fairly significant and as en empathy she could feel the waves of confusion emanating from him strongly, mixing with her own and making her feel like there was nothing that could be done to try and solve the puzzle this kid was becoming.
"I want Cyborg to draw some blood and see what this boy is." Raven said suddenly to Robin, knowing that it would take his approval to do something like that to a stranger who was knocked out.
"I don't know Raven, the kid doesn't seem like he's going to be any kind of a threat." Robin offered.
"What proof do you have that he isn't a threat?" she countered.
"What proof do you have that he is?" Robin parried, "I say we wait till he wakes up and ask the kid ourselves." And with that riposte attack Ravens argument was cut to ribbons.
"Whatever." Raven said and in and instant both herself and laptop phased back through the floor and were gone, leaving just some wires hanging form the TV.
"What is wrong with friend Raven?" Starfire asked, concerned that one of their team was upset.
"I don't know." Cyborg answered for Robin.
"She's probably just grumpy because she had to talk to us about herself and her powers, she hates talking abut herself common guys you should know that." Beast Boy said berating his comrades a bit for not knowing anything about each other.
Robin perked his eyebrow, "Since when are you the expert on what people are feeling?"
"I never said I was, I just happen to be more perceptive than you think I am." Beast Boy stuck his nose in the air and marched to the common room door, "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to bed."
"Its seven thirty in the morning." Cyborg sweat dropped.
"I know! I'm Tired!" beast Boy shouted and walked through the opening which closed behind him leaving the other three Titans standing there.
"I swear having another part demon in town might make things more normal." Cyborg laughed.
"Why would that make it more normal?" Starfire asked innocently.
"Err…" Cyborg had to change the subject rather than explain a joke so, "Who wants pancakes?!" He grinned as Starfire said shouted "Me me me!" and Robin gave a thumbs up. Robin then switched on the TV, changed it to a news station, and glanced out the window, the sky was still an ominous dark grey, but at least the rain had stopped for now.
--
Tyler swam through a sea of apprehension, confusion and guilt in his mind. He had blacked out shortly after the Flashback Drive had stopped and couldn't really remember the jump itself. He remembered the Echrid and fighting so hard to keep them away that he used up what strength he had and even took a pretty bad hit to the side but was able to successfully make the jump back in time.
Or did he? At first he had relished in his small victory of getting back to the past but then after passing out he remembered seeing his mother come to him, she looked slightly different than he remembered but it was defiantly his mother. He also remembered feeling her healing touch flow through is armor repairing his body and the armor itself but knew only his mother from the present knew how to do that not his mother from the past.
Maybe the Flashback Drive failed; maybe his mother had somehow survived the coming onslaught of Echrid and came to save him after the Flashback drive dropped him back on the ground. He tried to will himself back to consciousness but didn't have the strength left in him, and was forced to resign himself to floating through a sea of uneasiness and indecision, Praying that he would wake up soon.