A/N: The next chapter's here. Review in the end. Thanks and enjoy!

Disclaimer: Yep…not mine…

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Shadows and Ghosts

The flickering lights cast twisted shadows as a little 7 year old girl crawled through the rooms, now littered with whatever used to be office equipment. Broken desks, shattered glass from the windows, lots of notes, folders and documents, all of them scattered on the floor, however, the girl crawled further, fear and despair gripping her tiny heart, while small tears ran down her messy face. She was searching, looking for any sign of her father.

She still remembered as he brought her here just this morning. He wanted to show his little girl his new workplace. Ever since his promotion he'd planned to bring her here, but a few hours after they arrived everything went wrong. Everyone in the building heard that terrible sound of thousands of footsteps echoing in the streets. They saw the soulless mechanical army break into every building. They heard the screams and cries. That was when her father hid her under one of the desks, told her to wait for him there in silence and exited the room, closing the door behind him. And so she sat there for what seemed to be an eternity, even when the terrible trembling began, even when the lights went out. She sat there, sobbing as she heard shots being fired, people begging for mercy and painful screams. A long time after everything was silent again she decided to come out from hiding.

And so, she was now looking for her dad. The backup generator seemed to be failing as the lights were flickering slower now, increasing the time she had to crawl in the darkness. She whimpered as she moved from one room to another. She saw some people lying on the floor, but she dared not get close to them. She just wanted to find her father and go home.

That's when she heard one of the doors crash. Scared, she quickly hid behind a large chair in the room. For a few moments it was quiet and then she heard the sound of heavy boots slowly walking through the rubble. She heard as the broke glass broke into smaller pieces under the weight of whoever was wearing them. Carefully she peeked out from behind the chair, trying to see the unknown intruder. With large eyes she watched as a young, blonde girl passed through the corridor outside the room. She looked a bit weird, but she definitely not one of those dreadful robots. And so the little girl ran from her hiding straight to the teen outside.

"Please, help!" she cried as she grabbed the blonde's hand, apparently surprising her quite a bit. The teen looked at the frightened child as she clung to her. "Please, I wanna find my daddy! He works here and I don't know where he is! Please, help me find him!" The child begged. She looked up at her "rescuer", but was surprised to see a cold stare in her eyes. She slowly let go of her. The teen blonde then turned around and hastily exited the building, leaving the small child alone in the dark.

Terra went over to the other side of the street, turned around and looked at the gray building where she had just been.

"Slade, you heard that?" she asked, although she knew what the answer was going to be.

"Yes," came the cold reply from her master. Terra raised her right arm towards the building and her hand began to glow in a bright yellow light. She stood like that for a few seconds when the light faded and she lowered her arm.

"Slade…this doesn't feel right," she said weakly as she continued to stare at the office building. There was no reply however, though she would've preferred to get some answer. The silent communicator made her feel uneasy. "I mean, she's just a small girl…surely she means no-"

"Terra. Do it!" a voice commanded her. She could almost feel its power in her heart, but doubt still didn't allow her to move. "Now!" came an angrier command, filled with impatience.

And so, Terra once again lifted her arm. Her hand began to glow as the earth began to shake slightly. And as the shaking intensified she suddenly closed her hand. An enormous shockwave shook the ground and the office building crumbled into ruins in an instant. Terra stood there for some time, quietly watching the dust from the collapse rise into the air.

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"Well, what are we gonna do now? BB's on his way to find Aqualad, but it could take them a while to get here, and I sure as hell don't want to just sit here and watch Slade's army march up and down the streets," the half-robot Titan said, looking at Jump City through the large window of the common room.

"We need to be patient! So far Slade hasn't made any attempt to get to the island, so he probably thinks we're gone for good. We mustn't reveal ourselves until the time is right, or else we'll lose our advantage," Raven said in a monotonous voice, levitating above ground with her legs crossed and her eyes closed.

"Yeah, I know. But I bet there are still plenty of folks out there who didn't make it out of the city and they're defenseless against those robots," Cyborg replied.

"I agree. We are still the Titans and we have to help anyone in danger!" the Tamaranian joined in. Raven sighed in defeat. Not that she didn't want to help the locals, but she knew that even with Aqualad's help it would be risky to take on Slade, his army and Terra without at least the element of surprise.

"Very well. I suppose we could shelter those who've remained behind. There's still plenty of food in the Tower, so that shouldn't be a problem," the pale Titan agreed.

"Alright! Now the only thing we have to figure out is where are the people hidden and we can get going," Cyborg stated with a confident smile. "Of course, by this I mean that you can get going…after all, I can't fly and the T-car isn't too difficult to spot."

Raven just shook her head a bit and continued meditating.

"But how are we going to locate the survivors?" Starfire asked. "The city is too big for the two us, even if go separate ways,"

"I think I might help with that," Raven said. The other Titans gave her confused looks. "You know I'm an empath, so I can sense other people's feelings. Usually there are so many people around in the city that it's impossible for me to really use this power to locate specific people, but now that there are only few left in the city I guess I might be able to determine their positions, even from here. The feelings of people are usually unique…in the way they experience it. So, it's pretty much like a fingerprint," she explained. Cyborg's and Starfire's faces almost lit up.

"That's awesome! Go ahead, do it!" Cyborg cheered happily. However he noticed that Raven seemed to be hesitating. "What's wrong?"

"It's just that…I've never used this power…not this way anyway. I mean, I'll be emotionally connected with everyone in the city. I…I don't know how that might affect me," the violet haired girl answered.

"If it's dangerous, than don't-"

"It's not dangerous, I'm just not sure whether I can use it properly…I've never tried before," Raven said, cutting off Cyborg's sentence. He and Starfire looked at each other, and then turned towards Raven, nodding. Raven knew that they understood. Cyborg pulled out a large map of the city and gave a marker pen to Raven so she could mark the places where people might still be alive.

"Okay, let's do this," Raven said, more to herself than the others. She closed her eyes, took a long deep breath and slowly started chanting. "Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…" Her hand seemed to move on its own as she started drawing small circles on the map. "Here is one…probably male…older…" she said as she drew another circle around a small house. And than something changed. She stopped moving and it seemed like she would be struggling to keep her focus.

"What is it?" Cyborg asked carefully, not knowing what was going on.

"I…don't know…there's something…strange," Raven forced the words through clenched teeth. "There are two…signals…but they are…unique…" Raven seemed to be getting tired and soon her meditative state broke and she landed hard on the floor. The others helped her get up.

"Please, tell us what you saw!" Starfire inquired.

"I'm not sure. I felt someone who seemed familiar…but there was something different…like it was partially a different person…like a shadow…" Raven explained, trying to describe the feeling the best she could.

"And the other one?"

"I've never felt him before, anywhere. He's definitely not from Jump City. Both of them are very close to each other, near the pizzeria, and I'm sure neither one of them is a civilian, "

"So, what are we gonna do?" Cyborg finally asked, looking at the map with a dozen of small black circle's drawn on it.

"Starfire, you go and get the people here! Fly low so Slade's minions don't see you, and always bring only two people at most! Cyborg, you go and make some room for the survivors!" Raven gave out the orders and the others didn't seem to mind this.

"And what are you going to do?" Cyborg asked though.

"I'm going to check out those two signals," Raven answered with a determined voice. Cyborg nodded and a small smile appeared on his face. He went to the door, but just before exiting he looked at the girls.

"Good luck y'all. And be careful!" and with that said he went away.

Raven and Starfire went down to the main door of the tower. As it opened they looked at the city. It was cloudy outside and the entire city seemed to be painted gray.

"Remember everything?" Raven checked one last time. Starfire nodded.

"Yes. I shall save everyone as fast as possible!"

Raven smiled a bit, knowing the alien girl would do her best. They turned to leave when… "AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" Raven screamed and collapsed on the ground, her hands instantly grabbing her head as if it was going to explode. Starfire immediately kneeled down next to her and placed her arms around her friend, lifting her up a bit. The yelling stopped, but Raven was shaking violently.

"Raven! What's wrong?!" Starfire asked with a worried, frightened voice, still holding the young empath in her arms.

"Show me the map!" Raven said as she seemed to calm down a bit. Starfire immediately pulled out the map. Raven pointed at one of the circles. "Don't go here! She's dead now,"

Starfire's eyes widened in horror. "Are you sure of this?" she asked, hoping that her friend was just mistaken somehow.

"I'm sure. That office is gone. See for yourself," Raven answered and pointed towards the city. Starfire looked in that direction and saw a large cloud of dusty rise in the distance. She suppressed a tear as she thought of the innocent who'd probably lost her life there. She helped Raven get back on her feet and put the map away.

"Are you going to be well?" she asked, still concerned about her teammate who was still shaking slightly.

"Yeah, I'm going to be fine. Just go and help the people," Raven answered weakly as she stumbled out of the tower.

"Are you certain? Perhaps in this condition you should remain-"

"GO ALREADY!!!" Raven yelled at the concerned Titan. Starfire backed up a bit, looking at her angered friend, but decided to do as she commanded. Her feet left the ground and the Tamaranian flew towards the city. Raven looked as she disappeared in the distance. She was still breathing heavily and she felt like her entire body had been crushed, but she forced those feelings aside and gathering all her strength she also left the ground, flying where she felt the strange signals of two individuals coming from.

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At the same time, the streets around the usually busy pizzeria were now deserted. Everything was still, silent. Just a single person's vision was fixed on the other end of the street. He watched intensely that single place through the scope.

"Come on Robin, I know you're there!"

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A/N: That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed it. I sure as hell enjoy the way things are getting messed up. And to think how many more ideas I have in store for you guys. And for those who want more action, I can say, that there will be some in the upcoming chapter. (even though I hate writing action sequences, cause they're too difficult..that's why I avoid them, if possible)Well, review plz. :))