Blackbird Rising

by Snea

Disclaimer: If I owned Teen Titans, Terra would have fallen in the lava too. And Cy and Jinx would get together. :D

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Key:

"..." –Regular Speech

'...' –Regular Thought

Bold Italics –Flashback

"Italic Speech" –Different language (depends on character for language)

/.../ -Thought Speech/Telepathy

(...) –Translation

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Chapter One (Pt. 2): Hints

Light.

That was the first thing she became aware of. Azar, her head heart. She moaned in pain and closed her eyes, hands feeling around the pebbly surface of concrete. It was warm to the touch, like it had been baking in the sun for a while.

She shifted until she could sit up. Her eyes were already checking her surroundings, ignoring the lancing pain in her head.

Or was that her side?

She looked down to see blood pooling around underneath her. She bit her lip as she sat up fully. Her shorts where tacky with blood and her shirt was sticking to her back. She grimaced as she pulled it away from her side. A bloody hole greeted her; black threads from her shirt were burned into it.

'So that's what's preventing the healing,' she thought, 'that sucks. Now I'm gonna be woozy.' She rolled onto her knees before slowly standing up. She scanned the room again only to find she was in an abandoned warehouse (again) underneath a skylight. She looked up through it, shielding her eyes with a hand.

Sighing, she once again looked down at the ground. She now stood in a puddle of blood, as more of the red liquid dribbled down her side and pale leg into her shoe. She closed her eyes and shook her head, dark hair swishing in and about her face.

"Zinthos, you've done it now."

-:-

'Stupid hole,' she thought viciously, holding her side as blood gushed through her fingers. There was only so much blood you could wipe off your legs with your hands, especially when the wound was still bleeding.

She couldn't go into the city covered in blood, so the hospital was out. Which meant she could only get the treatment she needed in one other place, and it was almost two decades in the future.

Titans Tower was her destination.

And her sure-to-be undoing.

A half-hour earlier she had scanned and figured what time period she was in. To say she'd freaked out would be an understatement. She literally had a panic attack.

"Don't touch anything, don't mess with anything. Sci-fi rule number one: you start messin' with the past and you end up with monkey's ruling the future."

A saying she'd never taken seriously until now. Why? Because the Titans currently occupying the tower...

...were the parents of those occupying the tower in her time.

She stopped and screamed to the sky, "Why the hell is it always me! WHY!"

"Screaming doesn't normally answer that kind of question." She whirled around to come face-to-face with golden cat-like eyes.

"Yah!" She fell backward, landing on the cement with a thump. She turned on her side, curling into the fetal position as she held the back of her head in pain. Tears streaming from her eyes, she looked back to glare at the dark-skinned girl. "What was that for!"

The girl smiled, showing predatory teeth in light laughter. "It's been almost three hundred years and that's all you have to say to me? Well that's nice." Her voice held a lilting Irish accent, defying her exotic look.

Dark, ebony colored skin was complemented with the model looks of long legs, a small torso, a small chest, long fingers, and blue-black hair down her back. The shape of her face made her look Hispanic, with high cheekbones, a small nose and mouth, and thick eyelashes framing the one thing that marked her as unusual. She had golden eyes with cat pupils. The extremely thin eyebrows only made her seem foreign.

As it was, the girl was wearing a black satin and lace tank-top with some denim shorts and black high-heeled ankle boots. She crossed her arms and said, in a mocking voice, "Hello, Jaymon, nice to see you, Jaymon. No. I get a scream to my face." She cut an icy look at the girl getting off the ground. Her yellow eyes widened, stare focused on a spot of the pale girl's stomach. "What in Lord's name did you do to your side, Z?" The girl in question flinched and put a bloody hand back to her side.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Don't worry about it." She started to turn away. Jaymon stopped her.

"Zinthos!" She turned. Jaymon was holding something out. A black hoodie. "Here," she walked up and tied the sleeves together over the wound. "To stop the bleeding, or slow it down at least." She leaned forward and placed a kiss between the girl's eyes. "Azar's blessing to you, Zinthos. I'll distract them for you."

-:-

Robin had only one thought as he flew through the air: 'This is gonna hurt.' And it did, as a few loose bricks rained down on him from the wall he'd just hit.

"Robin! You okay, man?" Cyborg called back to him, sonic cannon basting as the girl in front of them did cartwheel after cartwheel out of the way of projectiles.

Robin grunted and stood up. He watched the girl in front of them. Beast Boy was doing his best to try and get her without getting hit the same. Terra kept trying to get the asphalt around the girl's legs, while Starfire threw starbolt after starbolt.

The girl was taunting them! She'd broken the bullet proof glass in the bank with her fist, waited for the bank tellers to call the police, who in turn called the Titans, and then threw everyone out on the street before sitting on the counter to wait. She was insane!

Robin glanced around. Where was Raven? There was a loud yelp and Robin whipped his head back to their adversary, pulling out a Birdarang reflexively. He relaxed instantly.

Raven had phased up behind the girl to get her inside a black orb. Either the girl knew she couldn't win now, or she didn't care. Robin looked around to make sure his team was safe and mostly uninjured. Starfire had a few cuts from flying glass; Cyborg had a few dents and cracks. Terra seemed fine, as did Raven and Beast Boy. Robin's back already felt like one large bruise.

Stiffly, he walked over to the imprisoned girl with as much dignity as his back would allow. He nearly fainted when he knelt down to look the girl in the eye, only Starfire's hand on his shoulder kept him from falling over. The girl watched all of this without so much as a sniffle. Robin looked at her.

"Who sent you?" The girl smiled, but said nothing. Robin clenched a fist slightly. "Why did you do this?" Again, her only response was a grin as she crossed her arms and stared at him, predatory teeth showing. Robin glared.

"If you don't tell us who you–!"

The girl interrupted, "You sent me. To protect someone." She leaned back against the black bubble's wall. "So far, I've been here too long without acquainting myself to you. After all, you know my mother." She shrugged. "Of course, I'm only half of that." She looked sharply at Robin.

Robin blinked. "Half?"

The girl grinned again, showing her extremely pointed canines. "Yes, 'half.' The other fifty percent," she leaned forward slightly, "is bait." Robin barely managed to throw himself back in time as the bubble burst outward with a loud grating sound. The force of Raven's powers being shredded knocked over the Titans and blew out the windows of the T-Car and the R-Cycle's windshield (as well as a few shop windows). By the time they'd recovered, she was gone.

-:-

"I still don't get it." Cyborg grumbled. Raven, sitting next to him with a book, only made a small sound in acknowledgement.

Terra, sitting in the back next to Beast Boy, asked, "What don't you get?"

Cyborg glanced at her through the cracked rear view mirror, "What that girl meant by us sending her to protect someone."

Terra shrugged, "Maybe she's crazy. Ow!" She brought her hand to her mouth to suck on the side. Beast Boy, who'd had his head stuck out the broken window as a dog, grinned sheepishly at her.

"Sorry, Terra." He turned his attention to Cyborg as he sat down and buckled up. "Maybe she'd some kind of creature from another planet with a duplicate here on Earth, sent by exact look-alikes of us!" This testament was followed by silence. Finally realizing he'd been ignored, Beast Boy pouted and crossed his arms leaning back into the seat.

-:-

Cyborg sat in his room typing away on his computer. A video had popped up in his inbox a couple of days before. It was so encrypted that overlapping codes had shredded how segments into binary code that scrolled across the bottom of the screen. Now her was trying his best to make it more understandable.

He hit the enter key and watched as numbers and equations flowed over the screen. He held his breath. This had to work.

It did, He let out his breath.

Until twos scrolled across the screen with the zeros and ones that made up binary code. Frustration built up until Cyborg felt like ripping his computer from the wall and throwing it across the room. He glared at the screen and started to stand up so he wouldn't rip it apart when a 'ding' sounded and a prompt popped open. The metal-hybrid sat down in bewilderment.

"What the heck..."

Password? blinked the computer.

"Um," Cyborg looked down at the keys and started typing.

Victor

Password incorrect. Password?

Titans

Password incorrect. Hint: T² Password?

'T squared?' thought Cyborg. "What the heck?" He typed again.

T Squared

Password incorrect. Hint 2: Azarath. Password?

Cyborg blinked and stood quickly. Going over to his door, he opened it and stuck his head out.

"RAVEN!" If there'd been a hanging light above his head it surely would have fallen.

Raven phased through the floor behind him, hood down, just as he opened his mouth to yell again.

"RA–!" A band of black stretched over his mouth.

"What is it?" Raven asked through gritted teeth. "I was meditating."

Cyborg mouthed something behind the empath's powers. Rolling her eyes she released him in mid-sentence.

"–hint was Azarath! How am I supposed to know anything about Azarath!"

Raven blinked at him, interest piqued. "What hint was Azarath?" He grabbed her arm and dragged her into his room. He pushed her down into the computer chair and pointed to the screen.

"This thing wants a password. I put in my name–."

"Is that your normal password?" Raven asked, looking up at him. He paused in his explanation, hand still pointing at the screen. Raven's eyebrow raised in disbelief. "You're joking. Even you aren't that stupid." When he didn't reply, she turned back to the screen and typed.

Azar

Password incorrect. Hint 3: Azar Raven Blackbird

"Okay, I'm confused. Explain to me what's happening," Cyborg put in.

"It wants the translations..." Raven said, trailing off in slight disbelief. He looked down at her as she stared at what was in front of them. She reached for the keyboard.

Azarath Metrion Zinthos

Password: Accepted.

Raven let our her breath as Cyborg let out a loud whoop and promptly grabbed her out of the chair and hugged her before jumping around in joy. Dropping her (literally), Cyborg came to a stop. His hand shot into the air, pointer finger extended like he'd just discovered ice, "This calls for a 12-inch pepperoni sub with Coke!" He shot out of the room and down the hall. Raven stared after him as she got up off the floor (he had dropped her) and walked out of the room.

The computer beeped.

Commencing Scan.

A few minutes passed.

Scan Complete. Commencing final playback.

A fuzzy static image filled the screen and crackly audio filled the room, destroying the silence and sounds of computer fans.

"if you're seeing this...sume the worst has...happened. My name is Jordan, and my mother is...of Titans. This message will play...times and only that, so listen carefully." The image changed, becoming clearer, but pixilated. Two-toned eyes on a pale face. The figure began speaking, the image coming and going with the audio.

"My name is Zinthos..."

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Reviewer Thanks:

notexactlyagoddes

raerob4ever

Sorceress of Demon Otters
FireMistress13

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Bahaha! I've returned! I'm not dead! w00t! anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's majorly long. XP I hadn't planned for that, but I was trying to cram as much in as possible. And I still have more to add. Gwha! I got so tired of capitalizing Beast Boy's name that I went and set my computer to do it automatically. lol! Well, I missed the Friday deadline I gave myself because I didn't type this fast enough. This is 5 pages on here and 10 in writing of hard work and many CDs. R&R please!

Rakushi Snea

Wow, um...this has been on my laptop since January. I am sorry. Please don't kill me.