These Black Eyes

by P0ST

The ongoing adventures and experiences of the Teen Titans, as witnessed through the eyes of a silent newcomer.

52. Wildcard

52. Wildcard

There was a beeping sound from the other side. Muffled. Sharp.

Following was a beat, then a hiss as an abandoned door slid open for the first time in weeks. A layer of dust flew up from the floor as the room was opened. A caped crusader and a robed girl stood with black silhouettes against the amber hall outside. They stepped in on clanking metal floors, the caped one reaching to the side and flipping a switch.

A pale blue light flickered to light above them as the door closed behind.

It was a converted utility closet, presently stacked to the brim with computers and filing cabinets. All the monitors were off and the keyboards were littered with printouts and maps and other bits and pieces of information. Stretched against the wall was a bulletin board with maps and articles from the Pacific West Coast of North America. More or less, everything seemed to dangle about a single subject matter.

And for some reason…the door had been closed off to everyone's access except Robin's…

"Can you make sense out of all this mess?" Raven asked, her blue eyes dotting around the room's interior.

"You bet I can," Robin said, sitting down at a chair, switching on a computer tower, and shaking it to life. "But as soon as I make sense out of it, I realize there's nothing to make sense of."

"What do you mean?"

The Boy Wonder sighed and leaned back in his chair as the monitor hummed awake. "The furthest I got was about random sightings in regions between Northern California and Alaska. All along the West Coast."

"Sightings of what?"

A beat.

Robin swiveled and faced her. "Why…lightning fast shadow people with swords."

Raven nodded.

Robin swiveled back and typed away as soon as the DOS prompt became clear. "It took me almost all of the first month of Noir's stay with us to come to these loose ends."

He finished a keystroke. A list of files shorted down…quite abbreviated.

He sighed and leaned his chin on his gloved hand. "Eyewitness accounts…surveillance testimony…but no names. No places. No fixation or center of all of these sightings. Just…local, urban legend. If there was more people like Noir out there, either they're gone now or he was the only one in that location and thus all the sightings died out after he walked East and found us."

"So you believee there is nothing further to search?" Raven asked.

"Unlike any hero I've ever worked with…," Robin muttered, "…Noir is practically untraceable. I fear the only way this detective's apprentice who sits before you can make any progress is if I asked him about his past myself!"

Raven stared off into space. "But he won't tell us……"

A beat.

"Well…..we do have clues," Raven said.

Robin glanced at her. "Care to elaborate?"

"We know his real name now, Robin," she emphasized, eyes narrow.

Robin shook his head. "No. No. Raven, the Confidentiality Agreement—"

"Robin…."

He stared at her.

Raven sighed. A beat. "When Rage reentered me….and Trigon too…..I felt the normal wave of evil that I must always deal with and suppress within my being. But also I've been feeling things that do not belong to my demon father. Negative emotions attributed to memories that neither him or I have."

"You think you absorbed a little of Noir's psyche?" Robin asked.

She nodded. "There is something very……very dark inside of him. Inside his past."

Robin shrugged. "We all have our secrets. I for one have my own secret identity—"

"Robin…," Raven spoke. "I sincerely…whole-heartedly believe that the secrets Noir is keeping is more than your usual secrets." A pause. "I think it may even be enough for us to be concerned about."

"Like…..h-how concerned?" Robin raised an eyebrow over his mask.

Raven stared at him. "Have you forgotten so soon, Robin? Have you forgotten how dangerous it is to trust a newcomer?"

That bit hard. Robin sighed. His eyemask thinned as he stroked the bridge of his nose and moaned, "You don't need to remind me about Terra, Raven. We were all hurt by her. Hurt very bad—"

"Because of trust."

Robin was silent.

So was Raven……until: "I know that Noir has done a lot for us. He's proven that he's a great team player and values our lives. But even Terra valued our lives once. And even she was willing to share her past with us. Robin…Noir is a dark and disturbed boy underneath. I can sense it now. Whatever he is hiding…it makes him dangerous. And when there's danger and mystery thrown together in his past, he is still the same now as he was when he first fought alongside us. A wildcard."

Robin muttered lowly to no one in particular: "Why did I let this rest for so long…."

"We all let it rest," Raven said. There was a touch of hurt in her otherwise deadpan eyes. "We have all forgotten….that pain."

Robin shook his head and sighed. "L-Let's not jump to conclusions. Noir's a good person, okay!"

"No doubt about that."

"We'll look into him more just…..n-no false presumptions, allright?"

"By all means."

Robin looked at Raven for a moment. "You're not doing this because—for a short time—Noir was practically your father, are you?"

She glared in response.

Robin cleared his throat, swiveled to face the monitors and typed away. "This is gonna take a long time…"

"Type in the first clue…," Raven said with a nod. "'Jordan'."

"And is there a second?"

"…………..yes. 'Ana'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dear Noir,

Back to your normal self, I hope. Good. Cuz I've got a lot of pressing issues on my head. I can't help it, but…I have this feeling. This very bad feeling about what's going on all around us. It's like a sudden, cold shift in the air. There's a downdraft that's about to happen. I don't know what storm it will bring or cyclone it might summon. But it's something to fear. Something to be ready for. And prepared for. And I worry the most about you, Noir. Because somehow I feel as though you may be in the center of it. Things are all swirling about in complexity and chaos and yet forming some sort of spectacular, nature-defying order. If you don't understand all of this, that's fine. I frankly don't have enough time to explain. Not now.

Just stay tuned. I'm quickly trying to sort everything out for myself. I have my eye on you as always. Not like THAT, you freakin' pervert. Just be aware that—no matter what—I'm on your side. I won't betray you, because—believe me—betrayal is such a terrible, terrible thing. I suggest you be on the lookout for your friends.

Sincerely,

-the Messenger.

P.S.: Oh…to liven things up a bit. I put an attachment on this e-mail for you. Press the print button. Go on, click it. I think you'll enjoy.

"????" I raised an eyebrow.

I moved the mouse of the Main Computer across the screen and clicked on 'print'.

I swiveled over in the chair towards the printout and watched as the paper went through like a fax. I chuckled instantly and rolled my black eyes as I saw what came out.

A full-spread, rather provocative illustration of Supergirl in her red, white, and blue costume stretched out before me.

I blushed a little and looked over my shoulder. Cyborg was making a sandwich in the kitchen area. Beast Boy was in the middle of an Xbox game.

I whistled innocently and hid the poster. I then deleted the e-mail, got up, and walked out of the Main Room in a prude search for the first wastebasket I could find.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

….My 'search' for a wastebasket ended up with me in the dark confines of my cellar room.

I walked inside and as soon as the door closed behind me, I froze.

I blinked under my shades.

I glanced down at my hands.

I still had the Supergirl printout in my grasp.

I winced. I looked across the room and found a wastebasket. I was about to crumple the thing up when---I paused. I glanced at it a second time. I shrugged.

Walking over, I taped Supergirl to my wall between lanterns.

I took off my shades, stepped back, and looked with bare, black eyes.

Supergirl flew straight up towards the ceiling—freezing mid way.

Silence.

I sighed.

I yanked the poster down, ripped it in half, and tossed the shreds away.

I headed out of my room and back up the stairs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Typing.

Typing.

Typing.

-click-

"Nope…," Robin sighed as he reached a bottom of a list of photos and names. "No photos of anyone named 'Jordan' in the locations of the sightings that look like Noir."

"And 'Ana'?"

"Negative. Nothing in the city records, high school albums anything. I suppose we could do a search of the greater area of the Pacific Coastline…but that would take forever." A sigh.

Raven nodded. "Any chance of programming the computer to do a search of such magnitude for us?"

"Theoretically, yeah," Robin nodded. "I'll get to work on it. But something tells me that if Cyborg were to help me, the job would get done sooner."

"…….," Raven was silent.

"Something wrong?" the Boy Wonder asked.

"Are you certain it is okay to get the others into this?" Raven inquired.

"Why not?" Robin said. "If Noir's past is important to us, then certainly it is important to the rest of the team as well."

"I don't want them to know that we are doing this again," Raven shook her head. "I don't want to rouse suspicions."

"Suspicions of what, Raven?"

She looked down.

Robin scooted over and looked up at her eyes. "Raven…is there something you're not telling me?"

"I-I've told you everything that I have……that I-I have felt," she said. "…not until just recently could I feel anything about anybody. Thanks to my dispersed personalities, I had a chance to see everyone in a true light. And at that particular moment, Noir struck me as odd in a manner that I had never sensed before. It is….unfortunate that I am so pressed to pursue these premonitions…but…no matter how nice he is—or appears to be—I cannot ignore them."

"You feel paranoid that you could be wrong?" Robin asked.

The dark girl nodded.

"We can always be wrong, Raven," Robin said. "Lord knows, we have been wrong. In the past."

"With Terra….," Raven mumbled.

Silence.

"But that was different," Robin shook his head.

"You're sure?"

The Boy Wonder looked at her. "No. I'm not." He swiveled around and faced the computer again. "That's what we're here for, though. To make sure. To be sure."

Raven thought for a moment on her own. Her eyes squinted as she searched her mindscape. She suddenly hit something and walked up besides Robin.

"In any of those old eyewitness accounts…," she asked. "Were any of the sword-carrying shadows described as being……'feminine'?"

Robin lifted an eyebrow. "'Ana'?"

"Something to that extent."

"Hold on…," Robin said, entering a search through the handufl of eyewitness accounts. "It's been a while since I've read those testimonials word for word. I'll have the computer check it out."

"There are so many different accounts of these 'shadows' on the West Coast, right?" Raven said.

"Yeah…."

"Too many to be one person?"

"Perhaps."

"It's worth considering," Raven said. "From what I sense…Noir may have a mysterious past. But it need not be a lonely one."

Robin typed away.

He hit one last key.

-click-

Two listings came up.

"Here," Robin said, highlighting one and going towards a particularly conspicuous piece of the text. "'Figure most likely female. Short hair. Face unknown under the shade of night….'"

He brought up another file. "'I watched as the figure hopped the fence and darted off through the field. She was wearing a yellow vest….'"

Raven's eyes brightened slightly. "The painting…the vision I saw….she had a yellow vest."

"Looks like you may have gotten a snapshot in time from Noir's head, Raven…," Robin thought aloud, scratching his chin.

"Where were those two sightings located?"

"Good point. Let me check."

Robin brought up a map of the Northwest.

Two blinking lights appeared in the corner.

"Washington State….," he uttered.

Raven stared at the map. She blinked. She held a hand out, pointing: "Bring up all the sightings' locations."

"All of them?"

She nodded.

Robin typed.

A string of lights appeared all along the Pacific Coast.

"I have a hunch….," Raven said.

"I'm listening."

"See if there's a contrast between the sightings north of Washington State and those South of it."

"Interesting…let's see if we come up with anything."

As Robin typed, Raven's eyes traced the dusty floors.

She sighed gently.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked through a hallway, my hands in my pockets.

Lazily…

Aimlessly…

It was a dull afternoon. There was no place to go. Nothing important to do.

I stared at my feet through glazed shades.

Sighing.

The Messenger's words rang through the distance of my mind….

The metal of the floor seemed odd all of the sudden.

I raised an eyebrow. I looked up and realized I had drifted to a seventh floor room of the Tower that I rarely visited. In fact, I didn't even remember that particular hallway at the time.

God……this place is so big……

I stopped in front of one particular door that struck my eye. I squinted through my shades and studied the surface of the frame. The door seemed…fresh. Sparkly. As if it had barely been used during its life here in the Tower.

Must really be an unpopular part of the Tower……

I walked forward. I looked at the door closely. Curiosity took over. I pressed the panel to open it.

Nothing happened.

Confused, I pressed again.

Nothing.

The door didn't even budge.

I looked over at the panel. I firmly tugged at it. The panel popped out of the room and—dangling by wires—I spotted a number pad inside. I pulled the pad out of the wall and inserted the four-digit, universal Titan passcode for opening medium level doors.

Finally, the room opened to me with a fresh hiss.

Dust flew, and I knew then that the place hadn't been untouched.

I waved a hand in front of my shades and peered in.

There was a huge window stretched out and facing the afternoon cityscape. Light blue light filtered in and dimly brought to life a small but artistically lavish room. The first thing that entered my head was 'desert'. The bed ,carpet and furniture was the color of a night-dark violet. The walls rose up in tiers of desert-beige colors, shaped to look like mountains and plateaus. Finally the ceiling melted down with a dark violet similar to the floor, but speckled with pinpricks of white to represent a starry, night sky. The only thing missing was a cactus plant potted in the corner. I glanced over not a second too late and realized that the room even had those too.

It was a bedroom…a living quarters. And yet…for whom?

My eyes scanned the room…and froze.

There was something on the bed.

I walked over…squinting in the faint sunlight.

I came to a stop at the edge of the mattress.

Settled neatly in the center of the bedspread was a heart-shaped case. Ivory and reflective. Like it was carved out of a mirror…or something. Anyways, it was pretty…even if it looked homemade.

I reached a curious hand down and fingered the top. I opened it, and saw my reflection in the upside-down heart of the lid's interior. Then something caught my eye. I tilted my head to the side and became aware of the image of a huge, green bear charging up from behind me.

GRASP!!!!

My heart jumped as two burly paws grabbed my shoulder and flung me wildly across the room. I flipped and landed on my feet, upon which I literally slid in a crouched position through the room and out into the middle of the hallway. I sweatdropped and watched—shocked—as the green bear shrunk down into a green elf that stomped towards me, frowning so hard his face nearly caught fire.

"What were you DOING in that ROOM?!" Beast Boy fumed. "Nobody…NOBODY goes into that room!!"

I stood up, panting, gesturing in mad confusion.

"Do you hear me?!?!" he shook, incredibly upset. "That room is off limits!!! Wasn't it obvious when you found the door locked?!?! I don't ever want to see you in there again!!"

He slammed his fist madly against the wall console and the door slammed automatically close.

BANG!!!!

"Man!!" Cyborg muttered as he rounded the corner. "What's all the clatter about---" He blinked and stopped in mid-step. "Beast Boy? What's up?"

"I caught him inside The Room," Beast Boy growled. He glared daggers at me—a suddenly hideous creature—and stomped off down the hallway.

I took a deep breath and looked at Cyborg in absolute shock. I gestured madly at him.

He didn't answer immediately. His eyes were gazing gently on the slammed-shut door. It wasn't until then that I realized I had trespassed some sort of precious sanctuary. Beast Boy could yell as loud as he wanted to, and still it wouldn't drive the message in hard enough. Seeing the pain in Cyborg's eyes made me want to lobotomize myself with a toothpick and forget every forbidden shape and shadow that crossed my vision as I so recently entered that room.

The android Titan sighed and looked at me. "That was Terra's room, Noir." He said.

I leaned my head to the side. I mouthed: 'Terra'?

Cyborg's human eye widened a bit. "You mean….nobody's told you yet?"

I stared at him.

"N-Not Robin?! Surely Robin would have……."

I slowly shook my head.

Cyborg glanced down. He sighed. "I guess none of us want to talk about her…."

I gestured curiously.

"Not now, Noir," Cyborg turned around—suddenly very somber—and shuffled down the hallway. "Just……n-not now…."

I stared after him….blinking confusedly.

I stared again at the door and felt a mysterious, nameless emptiness.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay…there is a small pattern forming…yet it's significant enough to take notice of," Robin said.

Raven folded her arms. "I'm listening."

"There are seven sightings to the north of where the 'female swordsperson' was spotted twice. Of the seven, four are in Washington, two are in Canada, one is in Alaska," the Boy Wonder pointed at the spots on the map. "Commonalities with all of these sightings suggest a male with short black hair. And a wooden sword. That's it."

"And South of the two female sightings?"

"Five accounts," Robin said. "In Oregon and North California. Also a male with short black hair and a wooden sword."

"Well…down to two people," Raven said.

"Not exactly….," Robin spoke.

"Hmmm?"

He glanced back to look at her. "The swords were different."

"How so?"

"All the sightings in the north suggested a straight sword. All the ones in the south suggested a curve."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "So….the pattern suggests—"

"At least three distinct individuals being sighted, but barely," Robin said. "Unless it's all one person playing a joke on us with different swords."

"And sexes," Raven added.

Robin sighed. "And just what is all this telling us about Noir??"

"How far apart did these sightings occur?"

Robin typed and brought information up. "A maximum range of three months."

"Is it safe to say they all ended at approximately the same time?"

Robin nodded. "About four years ago."

Raven paced. She paused at one point. She looked over. "How old did Noir say he was?"

"Officially?" Robin asked. "When he signed in as a Titan, he was seventeen."

"So…he would have been thirteen during the time of these sightings…."

"If or if not they're connected to him at age thirteen, yeah."

"Think there's a connection there?"

Robin glanced at the monitor. He looked at Raven. "Eyewitness testimony did suggest that the people sighted were adolescent. But that's based on difficult circumstances during the sightings."

"But it's a reasonable guess for an age search, right?"

Robin nodded. "I can check local listings of those areas for teenagers fitting those descriptions and at such an age level. But to connect anything to Noir in the West, I'll still need more details."

Raven glanced off into space. "That may possibly be arranged…"

Robin squinted. "What do you mean?"

She waved him off. "Carry on with your work, Robin. I have something to do." She wandered quickly out the door with a wave of her robe.

Robin stared for a moment…then slowly swiveled back to the computer monitor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven sat down on her bed, cross legged. She shifted about until she was in a perfect lotus position and glared at the chair strategically placed across from her.

A blonde girl—smiling in a yellow vest and green jump pants—stared back at her from the canvass of the painting across the space of carpet and upholstery. The red and black spots formed a halo around her. Mysterious. Suspended….

Raven took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and chanted…

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos……Azarath Metrion Zinthos….Azarath Metrion…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……Zinthos."

The girl finished her chant.

The earth at the end of the dark canyon shook and opened up.

The ever-so-familiar wrought iron cell lifted up on rusted chains and rattled to a stop.

Torchlight flickered across Raven's frowning face as she stepped gently towards the cell.

"You…….so soonnnnnnnn. What could you posssssssibly wanttttt?!"

"You haven't stopped plaguing my mind since I dragged you back here," Raven said firmly. "I want some answers."

"Answers?!?! Whattttt answers?!?! You insolent girlllllllll. All you ever givvvvvve yourself in life is questionnnnnnnns!! Who are you to speak of answerrrrrrs?!"

"I speak not just for myself," Raven sighed. "B-But my friends."

"Oh do you, now…………"

"You know something that may be very important to us……," Raven said. She paced slowly around the now-windowless cell and spoke. "You were inside Noir's head. You saw his memories. You saw what he was hiding. And you know something……something you've been hinting to me in my sleep and in my subconscious because it's too heavy for even a demon like you to maintain."

"Heheheheheheheh," the cell shook with the echoing laughter. "Tell me, girrrrrrrrl. Are you afraidddddd?!"

Raven's eyes glared. "Don't. Push. It."

"You are afraid!! You and Robinnnnnn. Sooooooooo Paranoidddddd! What's the matter?! Can't stand the raw taste of deception once again?!"

Raven gritted her teeth. "Shut it……"

"Scarrrrred that another 'friend' of yourssssss may just be using you like SHE did?!?!"

Raven's eyes momentarily glowed red as she shook. "I said……SILENCE!!"

The cell rattled.

Silence.

Raven panted and her eyes returned to normal.

The cage rattled. A wheeze came out. It slowly—oozingly—evolved into a laugh. "Heheheheheheheh!! Watch out, girrrrrl! You're a spitting image of your fatherrrrr!"

"So you know how to pull at my strings a little," Raven grunted. "So what? Yes, I am paranoid. I admit that I let fear slip out where it shouldn't have to begin with. But I remain resolute in my satisfaction that it is not a self-absorbed fear." She clenched her fists and added strongly: "I fear for no one but my friends and their safety! It is the only emotion I am willing to show, for it is not fear as is defined by average conventions. But rather an eternal respect for those I work with and those who protect me with their trust."

"Trust?!?!" Rage's voice hissed. "You speak of trusssssst like it is some eternnnnal thing!! Trust is relative, my dear! SHE showed you that, did she notttt?! For SHE gave you trust…then tore your being outttt from under you, then gave you trustttt again! You and all your pathetic 'friends'! And now that trusttttt is absolute as stone. For she is stone herself!!"

"Terra's destiny remains to be seen," Raven said, wincing as she said the 'T' word out loud. "The verdict is out on her in that case. What I am concerned about is the welfare of my friends right now."

"Welfare indeeeeeed," the cell's voice hissed. "Know this, girrrrrrl! Your welfare would be increased tenfold had you followed my advice in the endddd!! Heheheheheh!!"

Raven's eyes widened a bit. "If……I-If I had destroyed Noir?"

"So mannnnnnny secretsssssss. So much darknessssssssssss. I rather liked it inside of himmmm."

"Tell me what you know!" Raven shouted.

"Uh uh uh!! You didn't say the magicccc wordddd!! Heheheheheh!!!"

Raven glared. She closed her mental eyes. She chanted. "Azarath……Metrion……Zinthos……"

A cloud of smoke formed in mid-air. An obsidian rectangle flashed into existence, then solidified into a floating, mental copy of the canvass painting.

Raven's eyes glowed bright gray as she shoved the two dimensional facsimile of the blonde swordswoman towards the cell. "If you're so absent-minded at the moment……maybe I'll give you something to refresh your memory!!"

And she shoved the painting into the iron cell. Magically, a black portal opened and the painting sank through till it was inside the rusted structure.

Almost immediately, the cell shook and a great roar zoomed up into the mindscape's atmosphere with a rumbling liken unto thunder.

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!! GET HER AWAY!!!!!! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF HER!!!! ENOUGH OF HER!!!!"

Raven clutched her robe hard to herself and faced the rippling winds of red, pulsing energy. "TELL ME WHO ANA IS!!!"

"NO!!! NO!!!!!!"

"TELL ME WHAT NOIR IS HIDING FROM US!!!"

"RRGGGHHH!!! IT IS NOT WORTH IT!!"

"TELL. ME. NOW!!"

"YOU SHALL DIE!! EVERY LAST BLEEDING ONE OF YOU SHALL DIE!!! BLOOD EVERYWHERE!!! EVERYWHERE!!!!"

The cell shook. A halo of red and black spots identical to the painting shot forth in a wave and slammed into Raven.

She fell back with a shout. "Ooomf!!" And suddenly gasped. Her pupils dilated to pinpricks and then exploded till her entire eyes were black. Her robe ripped in two and hung on her arms as shredded rags. Her hair shortened and melted over her skin. Everything turned brighter. Light stabbed her eyes deeply. Her lips quivered. She was standing in a metal room. The rusted floors were soaked. Soaked with blood. Blood and body parts and entrails and meat strings that once beat and quivered inside human husks which decorated the corners in ribbons. She glanced down and saw herself holding Myrkblade. There was a FLASH!! and some blonde angel floated inside a room in the back of her mind, being struck by lightning at all angles. Her eyes bled. Red from black. And she laughed. She couldn't stop laughing. The bodies and the screams and the warm bubbles of blood dribbling off the tip of her wooden sword. A skeleton shadow shook on the far side of the river of crimson and glared at her with white eyes of hate. And she laughed at it. And she laughed at everything. She laughed until she couldn't see from the red streams pouring out of her black ovals and inevitably a scarlet light stabbed its way through the air till it kissed her neck and exploded with the pain of a thousand twisting daggers in the thick meat of her throat.

"JORDAN!!! WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!"

FLASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven gasped.

She had fallen off the bed and was spread like a wilted flower across the floor. She sat on her knees, gathered her robe, and straightened her blue bangs. She inhaled deeply and frantically gripped her throat.

She swallowed.

No more pain.

She hummed just in case---she had her voice.

The dark girl's blue eyes closed for a second. She breathed slowly, centered herself, and opened her eyes again.

The painting stared at her from the chair. Innocent. Silent.

But she suddenly couldn't bare to look at it.

And that was when the Titan alarm went off.

Raven stumbled to her feet and stared up at the blinking red light in confusion.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Up in the Main Room, Cyborg, Beast Boy and I dashed up.

Starfire was already there. She looked back from where she manned the Main Computer. "Most depressing circumstances!" she exclaimed. "A 'shooting of the out' between police officers and three suspects with submachine guns in Downtown!"

Cyborg stepped forward. "Anybody we know?"

"Negative," Starfire shook her alien head. "These assailants are complete strangers to our database. But they are most dangerously equipped in firepower. Commissioner Decker wants to summon the S.W.A.T. team of the City, but---"

"This looks like a job for us, I know," Cyborg nodded. "I think we'd better answer Decker's silent plea. And fast!"

I looked forlornly over at Beast Boy. The little changeling wasn't so much as giving me a side glance. He folded his arms and glared up at the monitor, sighing.

I looked down. My heart felt heavy.

"Where are Raven and Robin?" Starfire asked.

"Right here!" the Boy Wonder panted as he ran into the Main Room. Raven levitated not too far behind. "Sorry we're late. We were preoccupied!"

Cyborg glared. "With what, exactly?!"

Robin fidgeted. "Studies," he spat.

Raven said nothing. She look disheveled….distressed.

I raised an eyebrow. Concerned.

"Well, it's about time you got here!" Cyborg uttered. "In the Downtown we've got—"

"Mad gunmen, I overheard," Robin nodded. "We'd better go take care of it!"

"So early in the day….," Starfire mumbled as she eyed the map of the City where the shootout was located. "They must be madmen indeed."

"Let's give them something early to sleep to," Robin pounded his fist. "Teen Titans! Go!"

Everyone ran his or her way. But today, there was obvious lethargy. Robin and Starfire were quick to head out towards the R-Cycle and sky—respectfully—but the other three….

Cyborg seemed as solemn as before. He walked—not ran—towards the elevator to reach the garage and thus his T-Car.

Beast Boy took a few seconds to sigh and rub away a moist eye before flying out the window after Starfire.

And Raven…..well….I noticed for a split second her glance falling on me. So I looked directly at her. Our eyes made contact across the room. I regarded her through my shades. She stared at me with glazed eyes.

Was she………getting emotional?

No……

No…that's not it.

She looks………wounded…

The girl eventually spun around, rushed to the elevator, and took it down with Cyborg.

I was left alone, the last to leave the Tower. And in so doing, I realized that I was suffering from the same, mysterious syndrome of sorrow suddenly permeating the atmosphere of the home base.

What was going on here??
I ran a hand over my face and sighed.

What was wrong with……everyone………everyone……………?

I fastened Myrkblade scabbard to the back of my jumpsuit, ran up to the window, and blurred down the outside surface of the building.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Sakura Scraper was the latest pride of Mr. Kobayashi himself. Having earned millions from his management of JCN Broadcasting, the Japanese-American businessman had personally funded the construction of a brand new skyscraper. It was a marvel of architecture—laden with huge, blue tinted windows and a spire at the top that tilted towards the noonday sun with a forty-five degree angle. Parts of the scraper were still being constructed. Huge cranes and operating lifts hugged the side of the slowly rising tower. Most of the workers were at lunch or taking the day off in respect of a religious event.

Kobayashi's dreamchild was sadly the location for a dramatic exchange of bulletfire that afternoon. Positioned behind a concrete barricade of pipes in the construction lot were three dark strangers in body armor. Sweat glinted off their skin and rolled down round sunglasses as they took aim from behind the concrete and shot AK-47s at a throng of police cars and barricades out in the main street of the City in front of the infant tower.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Bullets whizzed and pinged off of metal and concrete. Commissioner Decker scrunched himself up behind an armored truck and gritted his teeth.

"Shit!!" he exhaled. "How do punks like these get these pop guns all the time?!"

"I don't know, sir," breathed his right hand lieutenant. "We radioed in the Titans. They should be coming in to help."

"I frankly don't care at this point," Decker grumbled and looked up as a bullet or two whizzed over the armored truck. "I almost feel like sending the S.W.A.T. team in anyhow."

An officer ran up, covering himself with a blast shield, and handed Decker a bullhorn.

"Here you go, sir!!"

"Thanks," Decker nodded. He made a face at the officer. "For god's sakes, man. Next time there's a shootout, take a piss BEFORE leaving the station!!"

"Y-Y-Yes sir!"

"I'd rot in Hell if I was shot dead with a bullet in my brain and my pants soaked with that shit!" Decker said. He shook his head. "Whatever. Ahem." A bullet pinged off a nearby car as he leaned the amplifier around and spoke into it. "This is your final warning!! Give it up or we'll come in there with the tear gas and—"

A stray bullet struck the amplifier, shattering it apart and causing sparks to fly.

"………," Decker blinked. "Dammit…," he pulled out his pistol and cocked it. "And to think I'm missing Columbo right now. Okay…give me the radio to that damn S.W.A.T. team—"

"Sir!!" an officer pointed up. "Look!!"

A green streak flew overhead.

Decker squinted. "About bloody time."

Starfire soared over the chaos. She squinted through glowing emerald eyes down at the scene.

The three gunmen saw her. One pointed. Another took aim.

She froze in mid-air and extended her hands, which glowed brightly.

A string of bulletfire streamed up at her.

She let out a growl and produced a stationary starbolt that simultaneously absorbed the incoming bullets with its heat and blinded one or two of the gunmen with its brightness.

That was all Beast Boy needed to sail down safely as a pterodactyl. Robin hung on his lower legs. Beast Boy dropped off the Boy Wonder, who promptly unleashed to spinning birdarangs after landing in the dirt of the construction site.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SL-SLICE!!!!

The barrels to the AK-47s of two assailants snapped off. The gunmen gasped and reached behind them for a pistol and a grenade.

Between them, a black portal formed in the ground. Raven lifted up with Cyborg, who promptly grabbed the skulls of the two thugs and—growling—smashed them together.

WHAM!!!

The third gunman spun around from shooting at the police and aimed at the Titans.

I blurred down with Myrkblade and severed his machine gun in half. SNAP!!!

Raven spun, extended a hand, and wrapped the thug up in telekinesis. She held him at bay just long enough for Beast Boy to rush in as a ram and smack the air out of the levitating crook's chest.

All three were down for the count.

"Textbook," Robin smiled and grabbed his returning birdarangs in mid-air. "Absolutely textbook."

Raven squinted. "Almost too textbook."

A braying ram turned into a green elf. "Yeah yeah, whatever. Can we go home now?"

I looked at the irate Beast Boy. I sighed. I sheathed Myrkblade.

"It is safe and secure now!!" Starfire called out from where she floated up above. "The situation is under control!!"

Commands were shouted between the cops. A S.W.A.T. team advanced upon the scene. Robin and Cyborg handed the disoriented thugs to the experts, who disarmed the criminal lot and carted them off to the squad cars.

Cyborg scratched his head. "So….wh-what was the point of all this?"

I shrugged.

"Bringing guns to a construction site?!" Beast Boy gestured all around them.

"Perhaps there was an illegal drug conference taking place…," Starfire suggested, floating down to the ground. "This is not the first time such has seemed to taken place at a construction site, no?"

"Yeah…b-but that almost seems cliché!" Raven said with an outstretched hand. "I swear, I would have written this to happen on a bad day!"

I took a deep breath. I gestured to Cyborg.

"I have a bad feeling too, Noir…," the android nodded. "Something's fishy about all this."

The whole time we bounced this around, Robin was silent. He squinted at the scene of Kobayashi's Sakura Scraper all around us. He looked at the spent bullet shells on the ground beneath where the crooks were. He looked across the street. He saw police officers accosting and handcuffing the three gunmen.

"There's nothing to rob here!" Beast Boy uttered. "Nothing at all! What were they defending with all that fancy shmancy gunfire?!"

Robin leaned forward, squinting.

A cop took the sunglasses off one of the suspects. The suspect shook his head…and looked in the Titans' way. He had green eyes. Bright green. Unnatural.

Robin's lips parted.

ALL of the gunmen had those green eyes. And all of them were staring across the street from their imprisoning squad cars.

Waiting….

"……………Titans, move….," Robin mumbled.

Cyborg looked down at the team leader. "Say what?!"

Robin spun and waved emphatically at all of us. "I SAID MOVE!!! TITANS MOVE!!! EVERYONE OUT OF HERE NOW!!!"

Beast Boy bit his lip. He transformed into a falcon and went soaring up into the air.

I looked around at everything.

The suspects clenched their green eyes shut and hunched over.

There was a whining sound. Increasing in magnitude. Directly beneath us.

"THAT GOES FOR YOU TOO!!" Robin shouted out at the police as Raven levitated far away overhead. "GO!! MOVE IT!!! NOW NOW NOW!!!"

The whining was practically an unearthly squeal.

I felt the asphalt beneath me turning hot red.

Vibrations….

"Robin!!" Starfire shouted. She was already grabbing Cyborg by an arm and hoisting him up with her Tamaranian strength.

As the vibration turned to shaking, and the squealing to a high-pitched shrill, the Boy Wonder ran up a fence around the construction site, jumped off, and grabbed ahold of Starfire's free hand. The three lifted up as one giant bird with three concerned faces gasping down at me.

"Noir!!"

"Hurry!!"

"Get out of there!!"

I looked down.

I smelled carbonite…

Holy crap!!!!

The first flicker of flame were literally licking up just as I hunched over and began blurring out of there. With smoke trailing, I zoomed over the fence, across the street, up a building side on the other side, and up towards the distant rooftop on vertically-scaling feet.

Somewhere in the middle of my ascent……..it happened.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!

A dome of pure plasma rose up out of the concrete bowels of the City and completely engulfed the construction yard.

A half second later, a wave of heated air and concussion danced at my heels as I flew up the buildingside across the way.

A half second after that…flames plumed up and outwards like a giant, dancing balrog of fire.

Seconds after that…the foundation of the freshly-constructed Sakura Scraper melted. Steel and all. The foundation buckled. The plasma ate and consumed. The weight of the giant tower gave in. It started collapsing. Straight down at first…then at an odd angle as the uneven construction took its toll. The sheets of blue glass windows warbled, rippled, and shattered. Fountains of lacerating shards flew out like vertical, crystal rain that ate at the fire that ate at my feet up, up, up the buildingside across the enflamed street.

I gritted my teeth and blurred with all my might. I reached the rooftop, and yet I knew I wasn't high enough.

A flagpole!!

I jumped out towards it. I gripped it with a nimble wrist and swung myself up.

At the end of my swing I let go and flew like a ragdoll diagonally up over the rooftop and towards the edge of the buildingtop. The sea of flying fire and glass turned me into a flailing silhouette. I landed hard on the gravel of the rooftop and slid in a veritable fetal position till I stopped and covered my head from streaming, blazing bits and pieces of debris as the collapse completed its metallic holocaust.

The immense height and mass of the Sakura Tower thundered into the earth, forming a deep earth that fissured out into the two adjacent scrapers and sent huge cracks up their heights and sending glass and debris littering the fiery abyss. At the top of the collapsing height were two cranes that flew off into the street, scraping over asphalt and encompassing three whole lanes of traffic—abandoned street from the gunfight thankfully—smashing through abandoned cars and lifting up entire vehicles from the momentum of impact. One of them was a firetruck that literally lifted up into the air four stories and smashed into the glass front of an office building.

A few stray comets of debris finished the gravity massacre, sailing through squad cars and windows and rooftops and chunks of asphalt for the nearest square half-mile.

And…like that…the rumbling stopped.

The Sakura Scraper was no-more, and in its place was a hole into Dante's peak. Burning like a wound of flaming blood in the center of our wonderful City.

Deep and penetrating.

I slowly stood up, wincing, and paced hesitantly towards the edge of the building side.

I found myself looking into a literal sea of glass shards, burning cars, and molten plasma. Smoke rose up, red and furious into the otherwise impervious blue sky. On a lone building atop the charred street, Starfire landed with Cyborg and Robin. I glanced to my left and saw Raven floating to a stop atop a window sill with a green falcon.

I sighed….relieved…but once again looked at the mayhem below us.

In a strangely un-scorched part of the street, Decker and his men came out of hiding with the suspects in tow. How they managed to find a place of safety is beyond me. They were covered in soot and dust from the building's collapse. They looked miserable.

Car alarms were going off everywhere. My eyes traced the huge gashes of scrape marks in the length of the street leading to the fallen construction crane. I noticed the firetruck embedded into a building side. I gulped.

Sirens came out of the depths of the city. Every firefighter, police officer, and paramedic was coming to the scene of urban catastrophe.

I looked across the way at Robin and the others. They had their eyes fixated at something at street level where the damage hadn't quite spread. I followed their gaze to a storefront where over two dozen t.v. sets were displayed before the sidewalk. There was a familiar face on all of them.

I blurred down to the street just in time to join Raven and Beast Boy floating down. Soon, Robin swung down, followed by Starfire and Cyborg. The six of us marched up to the storefront of an electronic hardware store and graced the plethora of television sets.

Slade's masked face was on every screen….

"Good afternoon, Titans. I assume you got my message."

"Slade….," Robin gritted his teeth. "Were you behin—"

"Come now, Robin. For a detective liken unto you, the answer to that is most obvious. Since there are many rescue workers who will be needing your assistance over the next few hours of futility, I will make my message short. This is only the beginning. Next time I could just as well set my eyes on a building with more……..people….in it…."

"What are you aiming for this time, Slade?!" Robin inquired, his fists clenched. "What's your goal this time through?! Haven't you screwed around enough with our lives and our City?!"

"Mark my words, Robin," Slade said, his head leaning forward and his emblazoned eye glittering on the multiple t.v. screens. "The end is coming."

"The end?" Beast Boy muttered.

"The end of everything you and your fellow Titans know…," Slade slurred—almost hissing. "And once such comes into fruition, expect there to be a new Balance of Morals. Though I doubt there will be an afterlife waiting for you to look down upon my finest hour from."

The picture flickered into snow.

Starfire hugged herself.

Cyborg rubbed his scalp.

Beast Boy gulped and looked at Robin. "I-I'm guessing this is a bad thing….right?"

Robin glared at the snow on the t.v. sets before slowly turning around and hobbling sullenly towards the wreckage everywhere. "Yeah…."

I panted, sweating.

This was not good……

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Every one of us was numb that afternoon, but we pitched in regardless, assisting in the cleanup and search for survivors. It was well into the sunset—between the flashing emergency lights of vehicles and the hustle and bustle of cleanup crews and volunteers—that we all realized that there were no deaths. A few casualties, a few injuries—yes. But, quite simply, the Sakura Scraper was completely void of its usual construction workers—especially since the area had been evacuated in lieu of the 'shootout' that took place. So the brunt of our efforts ended up being collecting debris samples for evidence in attempting to unravel the nature of the carbonite explosive Slade somehow set up in the sewers just beneath ground zero.

Decker was outraged. All throughout the numb afternoon, the six of us could hear him grunting and cursing quite loudly all the emphatic ways he desired to slice off Slade's genitalia and mount them on the highest skyscraper for all to point at and laugh.

He never got his wish, though. None of us—all the way down to Robin—knew this was coming. Slade had struck out of the urban jungle in perfect surprise. We knew we had to deal with him eventually. His name came up constantly during the Anderson weapons hunt. But for this sincere of an attempt to end our lives—or just send us an explosive message—that was completely out of the blue.

City officials said it would take well over a year to clean up the wreckage from the blast and ensuing collapse. We were all dizzy just trying to imagine the financial cost it would have on Kobayashi's JCN—or the world stock market for that matter. It felt like the echo of Control Freak's laughter was crawling on the back of our necks from over a month down the line. Everything was collapsing. Chaotic. Tragic.

We hobbled home under the falling cloud of evening. Confused. Stressed. A perverse map of Slade-hunting inevitably drawn before us.

I know I felt scared. I could only imagine about the others…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Besides slicing apart that robot duplicate of Cinderblock the first time we met….," Beast Boy mumbled as we walked into the Entrance of the Tower, "…you've never faced Slade, have you?"

I slowly shook my head.

"Heh…," he managed to chuckle some. "You are a noob yet, aren't you?"

I shrugged.

He sighed. He folded his arms and looked to the side.

A beat.

He shook his head then glanced up at me. "Noir….look, about this morning—"

I waved my hands.

"No! Dude! Seriously!" Beast Boy raised a finger. "I'm sorry. I-I should have explained things to you better. Terra….she….I…..well…."

I stared at him blankly through my shades.

Beast Boy sighed. "You've been here with us for well over two months…and still we haven't told you anything," he mumbled.

A beat.

"J-Just know that I'm sorry, okay?" he exclaimed. "Wh-While I was on that window sill with Raven…wh-when the building crumbled and all….I-I started looking to see if I could find you. I-I couldn't. Of course, you were fine. But suddenly—in the middle of that crunching nightmare—I thought I had lost a friend. What's more, I lost a dear friend with whom the last memories I shared was tossing him across the freakin' room in yogi bear mode and it didn't feel any good."

I smirked slightly. I nodded.

Beast Boy sighed. He shook his head. "I-I wish Slade was dead. I know that sounds cruel and meanie and stuff…but…..h-he just makes me think of her. He makes me think of Terra."

I wish to God almighty I knew who this 'Terra' was……

"Never mind. Let's go upstairs. There's a tofu waffle with my name on it."

I shrugged and followed him to the elevator. I could settle for Dr. Pepper….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLAM!!!

Robin grunted and raised his glove from having it slammed it onto the kitchen counter. "Slade. Slade! Slade! Slade! Slade! SLADE!!!"

"Say it enough times, you'll wear it out," Cyborg muttered, staring out a window of the Main Room at the night-darkened City. A spot in Downtown still glowed amber and bright. It was sickening. "You should learn to calm down."

"Why can't he ever die…why can't he ever LEAVE US ALONE?!" Robin growled.

Cyborg spun and looked at the Boy Wonder. "Gotta hand it to him, man. The creep's resilient. I wish I knew the secret of being as versatile as you and yet not having any friends. Then I'd be a millionaire."

"Yeah, and then you'd be a loser."

"Love you too, Robin."

The Boy Wonder turned around, slumped down on a stool, and sighed heavily.

Silence.

The Boy Wonder stared at the Main Computer. "He drew us out there on purpose, Cy," he said. "Slade knew we'd respond to that shootout. He knew we'd intervene. And he knew we'd be there for him to set off the carbonite bomb. But how?!"

"Coincidences happen," Cyborg gestured. "If we're not used to it by now, I don't know what to say."

"But there's more to it….," Robin breathed. He looked over his shoulder at his android number one. "Think about it. Recent events. Recent adventures. Everyone seems to know where we are or how to get us to some place of ambush. Viper. Anderson. Slug and Reload. Even Control Freak way back in the day. People have been mastering the art of knowing where we go and why. Are the Titans that predictable?! Do people seep in and know us that well?!"

Silence.

Cyborg squinted at the team leader with his human eye. "What are you getting at, Robin? So the enemy has had lucky guesses! So what?! We've kicked them all in the ass in the end! And what's more, what's that got to do with Slade?!"

Robin stared at the Main Computer again. He leaned his chin forward on two gloved hands and thought aloud with a mumble: "What's anything got to do with anything………Slade…….Dagger…….Viper……..Schauer…..the Experiment…..the B-Balance of Morals……"

Cyborg listened intently.

Robin mumbled some more. "The fact is….everything has to do with everything. When Beast Boy whined about that…he wasn't just being his immature self. He was stating the truth. Everything has been connected lately. I can feel it. Things don't make sense any other way. All of our victories…they've been too good to be true. They've been in such rapid succession. And each time we've kicked ass……………."

The Boy Wonder's voice trailed off.

"Robin??" Cyborg asked, curious.

Robin got up. He walked over towards the Main Computer. He stared into the blank monitor…past his reflection…into the noir glass that graced him.

"It's like water…..a river….rippling down the brook and letting the currents take us in some sort of crazy-sick Tao of fates…"

"Now you're not making any sense!"

"Sure I am," Robin breathed. "Because….I felt this before. And it was the last time….the last true time we faced Slade. The last time he scarred our lives and shocked us right when we were beginning to think that everything was heavenly and tranquil."

Cyborg took a deep breath. "When Terra was deceiving us under our very eyes…."

Robin stared into the black monitor. "Under our very eyes….." A beat. He spun and spoke firmly: "Cyborg. Take me to the computer core of the Tower."

"What for?"

"I need you…..f-for research that Raven and I have been doing lately," he marched off towards the elevator.

Cyborg hesitantly followed. "What……kind of research?"

Robin took a painful breath and uttered: "The only kind necessary right now…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I couldn't stand it inside there anymore.

I was going out.

I was always going out.

It was the only way I could think those few days.

In my denim jacket and jeans and white shirt, I sauntered through the Main Atrium.

I opened the huge doors and….there stood Starfire.

"Going out?" she uttered with only half a smile.

For a second there, I assumed she wanted to join me again. But then I realized she was still wearing her Tamaranian uniform.

I nodded slowly.

She lowered her emerald eyes. "I cannot blame you. You have performed most dutifully today in assisting us and the city workers in the wreckage recovery. And after such a frightful occasion as the collapse of that structure, it is only natural for you to find a retreat."

I shrugged and was about to walk off when--

"Noir…," she placed a hand on my shoulder. She was concerned. Her gentle voice was commanding.

I stopped.

"I heard about what happened earlier today. You happened upon Terra's room, did you not?"

I looked off.

"And….when Beast Boy found out….he was most displeased."

I sighed.

Starfire folded her hands together. "I am sorry that you saw such an unpleasant side of him. At least it is important to know that even Beast Boy—as childish as he may be—is truly capable of bearing pain."

I looked at her funny.

"He knew Terra the most," she said. "And I can share a great deal in his hurt, for I felt that----I knew that Terra was my friend. My close friend. I trusted her deeply and with the utmost love and adoration. And when she betrayed the Titans……"

Her voice lingered off.

Betrayed????

My lips parted. I exhaled and reached for Starfire's shoulder as if in some vain to console her. Console her for what?!

Betrayal?!?! Oh my god…what happened to these dear friends of mine and why was I not aware of it?!

Was I blind?! What's going on?! What's wrong with everyone?!

Who is Terra?!

Starfire?!?!

She sighed and smiled at me. "I suppose…even the strongest team members that you look up to…are inherently weak. With every fiber of my being I desire to tell you about who Terra is just the same as everyone else in this fighting force wishes, and yet…none of us can muster up the strength to detail to you the extent of our pain from what had transpired." A pause. "Slade is a most evil, evil man, Noir. I pray you do not forget that."

I didn't know what to say….er…gesture.

I merely nodded.

Starfire brightened so suddenly it scared me and made me want to hug her. "Enjoy your walk!!" she said. Then a blink and a concerned face. "Be certain not to wander too near to ground zero."

She flew up and past me into the interior of the Tower.

I stood and watched her fly off.

I no longer felt like walking.

And yet I knew—or at least I believed—that if I so much as tried to break forth a conversation about this 'Terra' character…I wouldn't be anywhere better off.

So I sighed, swiveled around, and took my usual, long trek towards the depths of the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Up in her room, Raven pressed a hand against the window and stared out.

The tall, thin body of the Titan swordsman wandered casually into the nightlit town.

The dark girl slowly turned around and eyed her chair.

The painting canvass rested there. Ana standing proud and tall. Smiling. The red halo….haunting.

A chill ran up Raven's usually still spine.

She hugged herself and decided to meditate earlier that night.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay, Robin…," Cyborg said, seated at the computer station inside the core room of the Tower. Metal consoles and glowing wires hung all around the two. "What am I searching for?"

Robin leaned against a wall opposite of the android. "Electronic messages," he said. "Sent out from the Tower and being received again."

"……..," Cyborg paused. "Can you be a little more specific than that?"

"Encrypted," Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Level Eight frequency."

Cyborg typed away. While doing so, he sighed. "The type Terra used…."

"Yes."

"Gonna review old wounds?"

"No…do a search for the last three months."

Cyborg stopped. He turned around. "Robin???"

"You heard me," the Boy Wonder glared.

Cyborg swallowed. He swiveled back and typed away.

Robin folded his arms and watched. Waited. Listened.

Minutes passed.

Cyborg took a deep breath and slowly slumped back into his chair. "Damn…………"

Robin's eyes shut under his mask. He inhaled and spoke without looking: "How many, Cyborg?"

"………..I……it….."

"How. Many. Cyborg?"

"Well over two dozen."

"Senders?"

"Two."

"Outer source?"

"Unknown identity."

"…….interior source?"

"………," Cyborg leaned his head down into his hands, sighed hard, and breathed out chokingly: "Damn……"

Again.

Again……

Robin stood up straight, let his arms dangled by his side, and opened his lips a good few seconds before finally summoning the strength to roll out: "Gather the others through intercom. Everyone but Noir. We're having a meeting. Now."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked through Bayside Plaza.

Store and marquis lights reflected off my shades.

The amount of people around me was surprising, considering the explosive catastrophe that took place hours before.

Everyone was happy. Everyone was in piece. Nobody suspected a thing.

I realized then and there what a fallacy these citizens lived in. To assume the Titans were at ease was to assume the City was at ease.

How I worried about them. How I worried about them so…

I found a bench and sat down with a miserable huff besides a garbage bin.

High schoolers gathered by the theatre box office in throngs. Chatting. Laughing. A few even pushing and shoving.

Families were walking with their little children in hand.

Old couples braving the night with both hearts open.

Everything I ever enjoyed watching……

Everything so fragile……

Slade…

I hugged myself as a shiver ran through.

I sighed and slumped back in the bench further.

I thought of my friends. The Titans. Their pain.

Betrayal?!?!

My heart ached at the word. And yet it kept stabbing me. In the gut of my spirit. Twisting.

How could anyone do that to them?! How could anyone?!

The pain got numbed by a gentle, nightly silence as the wind drifted down and cooled me. I was reminded what 'cold' really was, and I stopped shivering.

For a split second there—as if through spontaneous enlightenment—I felt peace.

So imagine my supreme gasp when the trash bin next to me started…………….ringing.

I jumped and looked at it.

Silence.

It rang again.

The freakin' trash bin rang.

I blinked under my shades.

I reached into the trash and pulled out a shoebox.

The shoebox was ringing.

I took the lid off.

There was a cell phone inside.

I looked around.

People kept walking their own paths. Enjoying their own lives. Nobody was seeing me freaking out.

The cell phone rang and shook.

I picked it out and dropped the shoebox.

I nervously fingered the receiving button…….and pressed it.

I held it to my ear.

I was mute……

"Ya know, whenever I drink orange juice—like a whole lot, especially in the mornings—and then go out for a walk immediately afterwards, I get the chills. It's most annoying."

"………," I listened, dumb.

The voice was young and full of vitality. Someone approximately my age and yet wise beyond the years of the average moron. Clay Aiken and Groucho Marx rolled into one bubbly/dry thinness that dripped through the phone and anxiously relaxed me.

"Have you been drinking a lot of orange juice, Noir?!"

I jumped again. I spun around, breathing heavily.

"Ack! Stop huffing into the phone! It sounds creepy!! Sheesh, you're like my girlfriend on a Saturday morning……--HA! I don't have a girlfriend!!"

My eyes enlarged under my shades. I was caught somewhere between panic and perplexity.

"Now….don't you think I'm funner to listen to than read??" the voice inquired. "Come on, Noir. Smile. This day has been screwed up enough as it is. Don't tell me I'm going to make it more somber for you. That's not my job, remember?"

I exhaled. I mouthed: 'Messenger????'

"If you don't know who this is by now, I'd be the first to sign you up for psychiatric evaluation. Or maybe public television. HA! But seriously, Noir." A sigh. "You're in deep detritus…and I think it's all me who's to blame."

I lifted an eyebrow and helplessly listened as his voice went on.

"First off, I want you to know this. Your friends—the Titans—they are still your friends. They shall always be your friends. But like all true friends who are truly true, there's always a time to battle suspicion. It's like when Genghis Khan was out falconing with his bird one day in ancient China. He was thirsty as Hell and knew there was a babbling brook up on this mountaintop. But each time Khan tried to climb his way up to the brook, his very own well-trained falcon would swoop down and claw at him. Three times Khan tried to get to the water to quench his parched throat, but his very own bird kept dive-bombing him. So Genghis got royally pissed. And the last time his bird came down to keep him from the water, he slashed that damn turkey apart with his sword. Or scimitar. Ah Hell, whatever the Chinese used back then. I'm Japanese. Anywho—so like, he kills his own bird. He climbs up onto the top of the mountain finally and—what does he find? A mountain goat had died and its carcass was strewn into the waters itself above the babbling brook. If Khan had spent all that time he did trying to kill his bird drinking instead, he would have had one god-awful stomach ache, died, and none of us today would be eating fortune cookies……or something. You get what I'm saying, Noir? We hurt the ones we love and then discover in the end how much they were doing us a favor. Khan wept over the prized falcon that he himself had ended. He carried its lifeless body home and gave it a golden tomb and everything for generations of pigeons to poop happily on. In some psychotic way, you too are in the same strut. But you are the falcon, Noir. You are the brave do-gooder. The underdog. And the reigning champions…the Titans…they're about to face off against their greatest adversary yet. And it's not necessarily Slade—as explosive as his sports seem to be as of late, heh. But rather, their chief antagonist is going to be their trust in you."

I gulped and looked around as if to see if someone was watching this taboo phone call.

"Sit still, Noir."

So I did.

"Do not despair. Things like this happen. Like a babbling brook of poison, it ebbs and flows till it meets a lake or ocean so big that all the pollutants are deluded into nothingness. It doesn't make the trip down the falls any calmer, but the end is still secure. As long as you believe that, Noir. As long as you believe in an ending…I trust that you will be allright. Because there are so many cyclonic things at play right now. I was right, Noir. I had a bad feeling and that bad feeling was legit. There's all sorts of shit swimming around in the air. And all of it is chanting 'full circle', 'full circle'. Everything in this whole damn City is coming 'full circle'. At first when I visited here, I scoffed at it. I helped you like there was no tomorrow. And I don't regret doing that. What I regret—though—was underestimating how much a foreigner such as myself could get caught up with the Experiment."

My eyebrows rose. I leaned forward and listened more intently.

"Schauer was right, Noir. There is an Experiment. And just like what both he and Slade coined, there is a 'Balance of Morals' too. Don't ask me to try to explain it. Hell, I'd love to do that. I'd also love to take you to Islands of Adventure in Florida some day…but I don't know how to drive yet. HA!"

I grumbled.

"Ahem. I screwed up big time. In all these occasions of helping you out, I dug myself in too deep. And I dragged you in with me. Because of that, the falcon is being distrusted. The Titans are bound to scratch their heads. And it will be such a terrible, terrible distraction for when Slade and Dagger do what they've been hoping to do all along."

I gasped.

"Yup. The two of them. Buddy buddy. And, no, they're not from Massachusetts."

I rolled my eyes.

"I was gonna tell you all this in e-mail. But that's the fulcrum of all the bad stuff going on now because of me. So I think it's about time I threw my cowardice into the wind."

A pause.

I glared at the phone.

"Pffft!!! Silly!! That means that I want to meet you in person!!"

My heart stopped.

"The Soto Dance Club. Downtown of the City. Two miles east of Sakura's Ground Zero. Meet me there in one hour. I'll explain everything………well……everything you need to know."

My heart was still tripping.

"Oh, and Noir?"

I mouthed: 'what?'

"Bring some orange juice. I'm thirsty enough to dunk over Genghis Khan!"

-Click!-

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"A conference, Robin?! Where is Noir? Was he not invited?!"

"No, Star….," Robin said in a low voice. "He wasn't."

He stood in the Main Room, looking at everyone sitting on the couch before him. Raven had her legs crossed and her arms folded. She seemed anxious. Starfire sat with her hands in her lap and a curious expression of concern on her face. Cyborg stood, hunched over, very depressed. Beast Boy sat on the backrest of the sofa, his eyes darting around in confusion.

Robin took a deep breath. "This meeting is about Noir." He opened his mouth to say the next line. But he faltered.

Everyone looked at him patiently. Everyone but Cyborg. The android's eyes were to the floor.

"Ahem….," Robin muttered and summoned strength. "It's about Noir. Cyborg and I………h-have just discovered a couple weeks' worth of secret, encrypted messages interchanged between the Tower and an outside source. The interior source of the Tower—however—has been Noir."

Mutters. Gasps. "No way"s.

"But….wh-who could Noir be talking to that we don't know about?!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

Raven looked at Robin.

Robin looked back at her. He spat: "Slade."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It is beginning……," Slade said, pacing across a brightly lit cabin. "…it is beginning to end…"

Dagger stood by a wheel for steering a ship. He spun a blade through his fingers. "In what context do you speak of now, Slade? Your words are ever so cryptic…"

"The Titans are falling apart," the masked man uttered slowly like an eel. He stood before a circular window looking out onto the bow of some unknown ship. "It is not the first time this has happened. In the past, I had made sure of it. I had stuck my foot into the door of their future and invaded their lives so intimately that their tender little hearts were wounded forever. And now their own history of pain is churning back on themselves. The tools of fate—working in our interests—have mingled with their clouded mind. What was once trust is now dissent. What was once honesty is now confusion. The Titans will distract themselves with the delusion that the Third Apprentice stands among them. The truth is, we have the Third Apprentice with us. And she is the prime component of the Experiment to overturn the Balance of Morals. You see, Dagger, I told you from the beginning this would all work in my favor. But it took time, like I emphasized from the start. It took time like the running of water from the mountaintops into streams and into the great body of water that governs our lives with as much blindness as karma itself. Only—for the first time in the history of our plane of existence—karma shall bow to us."

"You think they are so easily motivated to doubt the goodness among them….," Dagger said. "You rely on paranormal tools to make sure of this. Can it be that simple?"

"Dagger…," Slade eyed the man with his emblazoned eye. "It is that simple. Through our combined efforts and that of the Third Apprentice, the last two months have gone by like clockwork. The Titans will fall into our grasp in a matter of a week. The Experiment shall begin. I shall attain that which I always wanted. And you, dear partner, will have the weapon of fate at your disposal."

"I must admit," Dagger nodded. "I am pleased with the prototypes."

"May it serve you better than Dragonflare, my friend," Slade said.

A pair of footsteps alighted the cabin. The two crimelords looked over as a petite figure came to a stop in the shadows. Features hidden….shrouded….

"Speak of the devil….," Slade mused. "How was your night on the prowl, Apprentice?"

"Sufficient," the figure replied. It was a feminine voice. Youthful, playful….yet bitter. "The carbonite explosion went off without a hitch. I did as you asked. I gave them sufficient time to escape."

"I know," Slade nodded. "I saw. It's the most impressed I've been with you since you sacrificed Viper's hand to the Titans in the desalination plant."

"All these interventions are taking their toll on me…," the figure grunted. "Anderson's coma…Viper's hand…Mumbo Jumbo's camera…what other incidents do you want me to 'fix up' before I get my end of the bargain?!?!"

"Your 'end of the bargain', young Apprentice, will come to you in time," Slade gently said. "As the whims of fate and fortune spin full circle on their own, so shall everything here come…full circle. The Titans will be finished. My power will become supreme. Your wish…..your every wish…shall be fulfilled."

"And for that…and for that alone, I serve you……'Master'," the figure did a mock curtsey in the dark, then turned around and walked away into the darkness of the ship's cabin with clenched fists.

Dagger spun his blade and eyed Slade without blinking. "Her patience dangles on a thin rope."

"But oh…what a tangled web she weaves, Dagger," Slade said with a nod of his helmet. "For you and I alike. She has more than fulfilled her task. But I will need her for one more week…."

"For the Titans to fall in your hands."

"Affirmative. Do you now still hold doubts?"

Dagger sighed. He sheathed the blade into a tiny scabbard on his belt. "I don't doubt, Slade. I never doubt. I merely exist."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I came to a stop.

I took a deep breath.

The bright neon lights flashed 'Soto' above the rumbling, bass-driven aura that was the hottest rave scene in town.

I was to have a meeting with the Messenger…and with worried thoughts for my friends—my reputation included—in my head, I stumbled forward with an awkward eagerness to get the night over with.

And I disappeared in the throng of young people, looking for him.