Chapter 2

Robin swore violently under his breath, as he chased Red X through the streets of Jump City. Peripherally, he was aware of Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven flying above him, Cyborg in the T-Car, and the hum of the R-Cycle beneath him. If he had paid more attention, he would have seen that the mixture of frustration, confusion, and determination, which was plastered over his own face, was mirrored in theirs.

The alarm had sounded in the Tower, just as the sun had started to seep from the sky. They had arrived at the site, just in time to see Red X appear, vial of the experimental drug Panthax in hand, before speeding away on a sleek black motorcycle. The Titans had shared a look of confusion as to why X would steal such a thing, but they had immediately given chase. That drug could potentially save millions of lives – it was too valuable to be lost.

Robin's scowl deepened as he thought of how X had simply run from the crime scene – without stopping to fight or to trade insults as he usually did. It was clear that the thief wanted the Titans to chase him, and the young super-hero did not like the idea that they could be walking straight into a trap. Gritting his teeth in frustration Robin increased his acceleration.

Ahead of her team-mates, Raven flew with graceful determination. Her face was its usual stoic mask, but she could feel Worry, gaining strength in Nevermore. It had not escaped her notice, that as the sun dipped further and further below the horizon, the buildings around them fell into greater stages of disrepair. They were quickly heading towards the part of town Robin had once called the 'bad-lands' and X showed no signs of stopping.

She pushed her magic further, noticing with a suppressed shudder, that they were now in the heart of the 'bad-lands'. She knew the type of 'business' that went on here, knew that no one in their right minds came here after dark – that the cops avoided the place like the plague. Death, and pain, and violence seemed to ooze from the very pores of the streets. The lingering scents of vice and sordid dealings invaded Raven's empathic senses until it took an act of will for her to keep them at bay. As X skidded the bike to a stop, Raven gathered energy to her hands, preparing for the inevitable battle. She was surprised therefore, when X launched one shot at Starfire, before turning the bike and racing away down an alley. The titans pursued, intent on catching the thief.

On and on this continued, all across the 'bad-lands' until at last, they caught X by the warehouses bordering the waterfront. Forwning, Raven realised he had ditched the motorcycle somewhere along the line and was now on foot. Slowly, X withdrew the vial of Panthax from his belt and held it up for all to see. With a quick flick of the wrist, he threw the vial of Panthax to Robin, who caught it with a look of shock on his face. Giving a mock salute, X pressed the button on his utility belt and disappeared.

Just as the last of his image vanished, Raven flung a tendril of magic out, latching onto his essence. Feeling his presence solidify on a building two streets away, Raven evaporated in a wave of black energy.

X knew, the moment the dark witch materialised behind him. Slowly, trusting her not to attack him, he turned to face her. He knew why she was here, he had seen it in her eyes when he held her gaze during the battle – she knew why he had led them to this part of the city.

Gazing into the white voids of his eyes, Raven gave the thief a knowing look. "There will be no business in the place tonight." She said, her voice quiet. "You made sure that we chased you over every inch of this place. No one will come here tonight – they will be too scared. No doubt Robin will add to this, by making us search for you for several more hours." She took a step towards the masked man in front of her, "Why?" she asked, "Why make sure there was no business here, tonight?"

X looked down, at the girl before him, gaze flicking once over long legs and a svelt body, before meeting a pair of amethyst coloured eyes that reflected the night sky. "Because I had to." He said. Raven blinked once, but before she had a chance to question, further he had vanished. This time, she let him go.

Re-materialising in the hallway of his apartment, X tore off his mask and threw it onto the table. The weight of Raven's gaze was weighing on his mind. She should not have looked at him like that. The fact that she did meant that something had changed. That chase should have been primarily about winding Chuckles up with clearing the streets being an aside – instead it had been the other way around. Frustrated, X ran a hand roughly through his hair – he had to nip this hero-streak in the bud.

Muttering under his breath, X stalked towards his bedroom, his feet making almost no noise on the polished wood floor. Softly, so as not to make a sound, he pushed the door open. Instead of the sleeping form he expected to see, all he was greeted with was an empty bed. The sheets were immaculately made, smoothed, and settled in a way he could never achieve. Propped up against one of the pillows was an envelope labelled with a simple, elegant 'X' in flowing red ink.

Making his way over to the bed, X ripped open the envelope. Inside were five, twenty-dollar bills. Tucked around them, was a small note, written in the same flowing script as the envelope.

This is all the money I have right now. When I have more, I will give it to you, until I have repaid my debt. Name your price.

The note was unsigned. Sighing X shoved the money into his utility belt. He had to admire her audacity, he knew for a fact she hadn't had the money on her earlier, which meant she had left and broken back into his apartment to leave it there. Not many people would have dared do that. He headed back into the hall, grabbing his mask as he passed. He had used up a lot of Xenothium tonight. 'Oh well,' he thought

She remembered seeing groups of girls, and occasionally groups of boys, gather on street corners, only to disperse again when they saw the teenaged super-heroes approach. Many had looks of resignation or resentment on their faces, and Raven wondered if X knew what he was doing, when he cost them a night's wages.

Sighing, she tried to scour the images of scantily clad, far too skinny bodies from her mind. She was not naïve, she knew the type pf prostitution that went on in the bad-lands, worse than in the red-light district, but the Titans couldn't be everywhere. And besides, as much as she might hate it, the types of criminals whose only weapons were their bodies, were the responsibility of the police. She felt Rage, test the bars of Her cage, and with an act of will, she pushed Her down, focusing on her mantra, on the words she was saying.

Scanning the immediate area for signs of other people, X dropped quickly into the shadows. The building he stood beside was located on the outer edge of the slums, which divided the red-light district from the warehouses. The house would have been grand once, back in the days when the docks thrived with commerce. Narrow, standing three stories tall - with a basement underneath – the house cast long distorted shadows in the faint dawn light. The building looked worse now that it did at night. The broken or missing windows, the peeling paint and the chipped brick were all thrown into sharp relief by the sun's rays. The windows and door drooped like a sad face, as though begging someone to care enough to save them.

Moving towards the front of the house, X saw that whilst the glass from the windows might be missing in places, whilst the wood from the door seemed, in parts, to be almost rotted through, it would not be easy to get it. Metal grids stood behind the glass in each window – the spaces between too small to get a hand through. Behind the wood of the door, another door could be seen – this one of corrugated iron. Someone had taken pains to try to make this house safe. That alone told him he was probably in the right place.

Noiselessly, he was a thief after all, he began working the lock with his picks. He knew he could always have teleported inside, but why waste precious Xenothium on something he actually enjoyed doing. The first lock opened easily, giving way under his skilful hands. The second lock however, the one which belonged to the iron door, proved trickier than he had anticipated. With a final pull, and twist, X felt the mechanisms tumble into place. He held his breath for a moment, waiting for an alarm to trip, as the lock recognised the excessive vibrations of a forced entry. He waited, but no sound came – apparently, that type of security really was too expensive. He pushed the door in, and slipped inside, making sure to stick to the shadows, which still dominated the inside of the house. Dawn might be rising outside, but its light had not yet permeated the twilight of the home. Pushing the door shut, he let the automatic lock click into place.

Listening for the sound of anyone waking, he stealthily made his way up the stairs. He briefly wondered what he was doing, tracking the strange golden eyed girl down. It wasn't like he planned on returning the money she had left him. He tried to convince himself that he was here to settle on a price – how much she still owed him – but he knew that wasn't true. He may have been a thief, but he was an honest one. He was not about to scam money from people fighting to stay alive. A nagging little voice at the back of his mind jeered that he was getting soft. He shoved it away with an irritated growl focusing instead on making it up the stairs without making a sound. He reached the first landing and looked around. He had reasoned, that anyone with that much security on the front door, was unlikely to have bedrooms on the ground floor. Suspicious people tended to avoid bedrooms on the ground floor (and he should know, he'd robbed enough of them). Frowning slightly under his mask, he surveyed the three doors leading off the hall. The more doors he opened, the higher the chances of someone else noticing he was there – he really didn't want word spreading that he had become involved in this girl's life. Too much potential for complications. Sighing, he took a step towards the nearest door, only to come up short as he felt press of a blade against his throat. He closed his eyes in resignation; this was getting repetitive.

"How did you get in here?" The words came out in an angry hiss, forced from between clenched teeth. He noticed with interest, that whilst there was anger in the voice, there was a strong undercurrent of fear. He realised in a moment, what his presence here would mean to her, to those she kept safe. Someone had violated their sanctuary. If he could do it, how many would follow? Was it still safe for them here?

"I picked the lock." Feeling her tense even more behind him, he added, "It wasn't easy – but I'm an expert thief. I doubt anyone who frequents this neighbourhood would be able to do it. You're safe." Nothing happened for a moment, then he felt the knife leave his neck, and heard her take a step down the stairs. Turning he faced her.

She was still wearing the clothes he had given her, but her hair was pulled up into a rough ponytail – as if she had done so without a mirror – and he could see the outline of a sheath on her right hip. She titled her head to look into the white voids which acted like eyes in his mask. Golden eyes searched an immovable face looking for something. He wondered what she hoped to find in a mask. Eventually she nodded, turning to walk down the stairs.

"We'll talk in the kitchen. If we stay here, we'll wake the children."

The kitchen was dim and sparse, lit only by the growing light from outside, and equipped with only the bare necessities. Walking into the room ahead of him, she took the only seat that allowed the occupant to watch both the windows and doors. X had to content himself with leaning into the corner, so as to ensure no one could sneak up on him. It had happened twice in the past two days, which in his line of work was compromising if not dangerous – he made a mental note to train more.

He watched as she placed the knife down on the table, and began to spin it idly. Light danced off the blade, rippling across the room and on the ceiling. Her eyes never moved from the spinning blade, her only movement, the occasional flick of the wrist to send the knife spinning round and round once more.

"How easy was it for you to find me?" Her voice was soft, as though she feared that even here, a floor below, she would disturb the sleeping children if she spoke too loud.

"It would have been harder if I hadn't been who I was." He did not want to tell her exactly how he found her – he would have to reveal too many names. "It wouldn't be easy for anyone else."

She huffed quietly, a quick up-down motion of her shoulders and an expulsion of breath, but she did not say anything. He spoke again, just to break the silence, "I don't want anymore money you know."

She looked up then, eyebrows raised, and a look of polite disbelief on her face. He shook his head at her cynicism. "Not everyone in this world wants to exploit you kid." He said. On a whim, he took the money she had left him from his belt and threw it onto the table. She blinked rapidly a few times, as if trying to make sense of what he had just done. A voice in his mind was asking him the same thing. What had he been thinking? Another voice reasoned, Too late to do anything about it now.

With a mock bow in her direction, he pressed the button in the centre of his utility belt, and disappeared.

Raven stared out over the Jump City Bay, unconsciously worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. It was an unusual action for the usually stoic empath – the nervous habit, looking out of place on her normally expressionless face. Had she been aware of the action she would have stopped it immediately, but at the moment, her mind was focused on the Chaos she felt growing in the city. Conflict, change, and confusion were crowding her mind – oozing down the psychic line, which connected her to Red-X. She refused to examine her motives for maintaining the connection, reasoning that it was entirely logical to keep track of one's enemies. She studiously ignored Logic's question as to why, if this were the case, she had not informed Robin that she was aware of Red-X's location, instead choosing to focus her energies on the Chaos building on the horizon. Something was coming, something which spelt disaster for Jump City and the Teen Titans. Probing further with her mind, she wormed her way through the Chaos, searching for a sign. There in the distance, a faint light – blinking feebly, hanging in the balance between extinction and brilliance.

Pulling back into her own mind, Raven sighed. It was times like these, she wished she were a Seer, as some of the others in Azerath had been. Then, maybe, she would have a clearer idea of what lay ahead. Instead, she had only senses, a mere inkling of what might come. She was so lost in her own contemplation that she did not hear Robin walk onto the roof where she sat, cross-legged, gazing at the sea. So, it was not until he came and stood beside her, that she even realised he was there.

"Something's coming. Isn't it?" His voice was quiet, but it did not lack purpose. He stood there, stock still, watching the late afternoon sun work its way towards the horizon.

"You sensed it too?" Raven asked. She would be surprised if he had, she wasn't aware Robin had any psychic abilities. But then again, who really knew the truth about 'Boy Wonder'?

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Robin shake his head. "No." He said, "But I can sense you. We're connected, remember Raven? You're worried. And that's not like you."

Au contraire, she thought humourlessly, I worry plenty of times, I just don't tell you about them. It upset her slightly that even Robin forgot sometimes that she did have emotions – that her expressionless face, did not mean she lacked a heart. Rather than contradict him however, she stayed silent, watching the waves.

Eventually she spoke. "Yes, something is coming. But I can't tell you what it is, I'm not a Seer. All I know is that when it comes, it will be worse than nearly anything we've seen before."

Robin nodded once, turning to face her. Though she could not see it, his eyes were grim behind his mask. His hands clenched into fists. "Well then," he said, "whatever it is, we'd better be ready for it." With those words, he walked away.

Raven watched him go, shaking her head at his folly. Somehow Boy Wonder, she thought, I doubt it will be that easy.