A little sensitive stuff in this one, its handled subtly, but just in case, a little warning.

A binocular gaze focuses on a man exiting a club. Currently, in one of the darkest parts of the city, in the sidewalk can be seen, freaks, junkies, punks, leather boys and motorcycle men. The man is very skinny, probably in his forties, a goatee under his chin. He looks around, paranoid, a black hoodie covers most of his face, the rain pouring over him. He walks a few feet to a nearby car, opens it, and gets in the back seat, he is looking for something.

Two police officers watch him from their cruiser, it's a look-out. They take a picture.

The man retrieves a black box from his car and gets back into the club. Another picture.

One of the officers grabs his radio. "We found our suspect in the murders; I repeat, we have Arthur Light."


Gar presses play in the music player. Instantly Reptide by Vance Joy starts playing through the speakers at the living room in the mansion. He commences moving to the rhythm of the song, Victor joining him as they both dance. Richard and Kory, seated on a close sofa, watch them, laughing, Kory clapping to the beat of the music. Raven is also seated in the same sofa, watching them as they embarrass themselves, a small smile on her face.

All five of them enjoying this little celebration after they had taken down Billy, and as a team, each one contributing in their own way.

Victor throws an imaginary lasso at Kory; Richard gives her a little push in the back, and Victor starts pulling on the lasso, dragging her to the dance floor as she dances with them.

Richard laughs as he watches her enjoying herself while dancing.

He turns to the side toward Raven, the other "boring" member of the team, as Gar had called them. A thought in his mind. Earlier, when he had found her, she had said something about not wanting to hurt him, as if she was not in control of her abilities, however, that's not what he saw during the mission. She looked as in control as ever.

"Are you okay?" He finally asks.

Raven turns to him and nods. "Nothing like corny music to celebrate a victory." The other members of the team still dancing a few feet from them.

Richard laughs, but it quickly fades away. "You know, if you want to talk to me about whatever happened to you this last year, or us, we are here for you."

"I know, Richard, thanks."

"And then when the door of the truck opened, and another Billy came out with a machine gun and started TARARARA!" Gar says excited, forcing them to look at him as he holds an imaginary machine gun. "I moved away SO fast!"

"Dude, that motherfucker started shooting my car. I had to get another windshield!" Victor protests. "Lucky for me, Raven stopped him before he completely destroyed it."

Raven rolls her eyes.

"And then Nightwing jumped on the truck and punched Billy" Gar continues as he punches the air. "And then I took advantage and came down and snatched the diamond off Billy" he finishes with a proud smile.

"Thrilling Gar" Kory adds clapping. "I thank you once again for retrieving my family diamond."

Richard nods at Gar. "Well done, Gar, I must admit you proved me wrong. I didn't have much faith in you joining the mission, but you proved me otherwise. You can be a great asset to the team."

Gar smiles at the compliment.

"Yeah, boy!" Victor says high-fiving him. "We the New Titans, fuck your previous teams, we better!" He yells with a smile.


A few minutes after Victor's modest declaration, Kory is in the kitchen retrieving some sodas to continue with the celebration. She has five between her arms when she turns to the door and notices Richard leaning against the frame of the door, looking at her. A small smile on his face.

"Hey beautiful."

"Greeting" she says leaning forward and pecking him on the lips. "Are you going to let me pass or should I pay a little tax? Another kiss perhaps?" She says seductively.

He laughs before his face turns a bit more serious. "Back at the deck, what was it you wanted to tell me? Something about the sun I think it was." He hadn't forgotten.

Kory's smile fades, she nods and places the sodas over the counter. She looks at Richard. "You remember how I told you I could transform solar energy into energy beams?" He nods. "Well, I also require it for a living, just like I need air or water. I am afraid it has been five days now without a ray of sun, I fear I am becoming weaker with every day that passes."

Richard looks down, a thoughtful look on his face. "That's not good." He looks at her. "You want to get out of town for a few days, go to a place a little sunnier?"

Kory shakes her head. "I believe it will not be necessary, it is a matter of time before the sun comes out again. I am doing this only to warn you I may not be as strong in combat."

Richard nods. "Alright, but be careful, and inform us if you get worse."

Kory smiles and nods at him. "I will do it, my love."

Then a worried Victor enters the kitchen, he looks at them, serious look on his face. "The lieutenant called. They found our guy."


Victor, Kory, and Nightwing stand inside the police station in the ready room, a windowless classroom with police rifles and uniforms to the side. In front of them stands the lieutenant. Five hardened SWAT police officers to the side, four men and one woman, sit in chairs facing him, waiting for the briefing. All of them wearing the grey SWAT team uniform, minus the helmet. Behind the lieutenant, is a white screen. A man in his forties appears on his screen, it's the same from the lookout.

"His name is Arthur Light" the lieutenant says. "We have reasons to suspect he is behind the murders of two civilians and two of our partners a couple of days ago."

Nightwing looks at the SWAT members. They sure are taking this case very seriously, something very common when dealing with a suspect of killing other cops. He focuses back on the lieutenant.

"We don't know how he killed them, so be careful, expect anything. This Light guy has a long history of crimes, theft, rape, attempted murder, he is dangerous. Two of our men were tracking him, found him outside a nightclub."

One of the officers raises his hand. "So, we walk to the club and ring the bell, problem solved" he says jokingly. The other cops laugh.

The lieutenant clenches his jaw. "Listen Brooklyn" he says, referring to the cop who made that comment. "The suspect may not give up without a fight, expect resistance from him." He says that last part looking at Nightwing and Victor. He turns back to the cops. "This man killed two of us, two great men. Two women whose husband didn't come back home, children who will grow up without their father." Kory's face softens at that. "I want him behind bars, is it clear?!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" The police officer's answer.

"Go!" With that, the cops put on their helmets and leave the room. Nightwing watches them go, clearly motivated to take this guy down, the lieutenant sure was good with the pep talks.

The black SWAT van leaves the police station, the blue Camaro and N-Cycle behind it.

Nightwing touches his earpiece. "You heard them, this case is personal to them, don't let this blind you, keep a cool head."

"You got it" Victor says while driving.

"We will keep our heads cool" Kory adds, seated next to Victor. Since she was running low on energy, they figured it was best if she saved as much as possible riding with Victor.

"Also remember, this guy is only a suspect, he may not be our killer, so don't rush to act."


Raven is seated with her eyes closed, meditating while she repeats her mantra. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…" she chants in a low voice. She is currently seated in the living room of the mansion.

A few minutes ago, they had been called about another case, apparently, they had found a suspect of a previous crime. Since Nightwing didn't want Gar to go to this specific case, she had offered herself to stay with him. Not particularly because she cared about him, but because it gave her an excuse not to go. Two days in a row of using her powers to fight could have negative effects on her. Luckily, the evil inside her had not taken control during the Billy case, who knows how many people she could have hurt if she had lost control, it was reckless of her part to join the mission.

For a moment, her mind goes back to Malchior. It had been a couple of days now since she had last seen him. What would he be up to? Is he okay? Is he angry at her for running out without saying goodbye? It doesn't matter, she did it for the best. She could hurt him… but then again, she could also hurt her friends. She moves the thought to the side.

Suddenly, she is hit by the sensation of another presence in the room. "I know you are here" she says without opening her eyes.

Out of the corner of the room, a small green rat appears. It walks a few feet and stops. Slowly, it starts growing and changing until it transforms into Gar, clothes on. He stands up.

"How did you know it was me?"

"Not even real rats smell as bad as you" she says, her eyes still closed.

Gar raises his arm and smells his armpit. He shrugs, it isn't that bad. He looks at Raven, who went back to repeating her mantra. "What is that you are saying?"

"My mantra."

"Cool, does it help you focus?"

"Yes."

"Cool."

Raven opens her eyes for the first time, an annoyed look on her face. "Is there anything I can help you with, Garfield?"

Gar looks down, not daring to look at her while asking the question. "You know what happened to me? The whole creature situation?"

Raven nods. "Yes, Nightwing told me."

"You saw pictures of it?" Again, Raven nods. "You know how it started the day I saw you on the street. I was wondering if you know what happened, if you did something or whatever, or know what that creature was."

"I didn't do anything, at least not on purpose" Raven says.

"Oh, cool, can't blame me for..."

"But I know what that creature was" she says, interrupting him.

Gar looks at her with great interest. "You know?"


Once they reach the nightclub, all five of the SWAT officers rush out of the van and to the doorway. The heroes behind them. The one they call Brooklyn, shows his badge to the bodyguard standing outside. He moves to the side, letting them in.

They start descending, single-file through a narrow stairwell, the loud techno music of the club already buzzing in their ears. They reach the bottom of it and open the door leading inside the club.

Inside, they are greeted by a large, dark room, red and blue strobe lights illuminating the room, the techno music now deafening. The heroes look around the room. A large mass of men and women grinding their bodies together to the rhythm of the techno music, oblivious to the presence of both the heroes and SWAT team, probably too stoned to make sense of what could happen. On the far corner of the room is the counter, with tall columns to the side of the dance floor.

Nightwing turns to Victor and Kory. "Look around and take care." Kory and Victor nod as they start walking around the room.

Brooklyn does a hand signal, dispersing his team around the room.

Kory is grabbed by the wrist by a man who looks at her, a flirtatious look in his eyes. Her eyes flash green at that, making the man step back, not knowing if what he saw was real or the effect of the drugs he had taken. Kory doesn't like this place, although she would be lying if she said her planet didn't have similar places to this one.

A woman starts dancing against Victor, rubbing her body against his metal. Although Victor must admit is really beautiful, this is not the time nor the right kind of person to do this with, she clearly doesn't look as if she would remember this tomorrow. He moves her to the side and continues walking.

Nightwing walks forward, a look of concentration on his eyes as he looks at each face he passes, any of these people could be Light.

Brooklyn walks to the counter and shows the barman a picture of Arthur Light. The barman looks at it and points with his eyes to a door. Brooklyn nods at him and signals for his men to follow him. The heroes continue walking through the crowd.

Brooklyn opens the door, in front of him stands a dark hallway, closed doors to each side. He signals to each member to open a separate door. He kicks open the first of the doors. Empty, only boxes inside.

Victor sees the SWAT teams go through that door and motions for Nightwing and Kory to join them.

The female cop kicks her door open, also empty.

Nightwing enters the first one of the rooms. Only boxes inside, he kneels next to them and inspects.

Another cop kicks open the final door of the hallway, this one is much larger, also completely dark. Hesitantly, he walks forward, his automatic gun raised. He notices a figure between the shadows.

Nightwing looks closer at the boxes. He notices the Wayne Enterprises logo on them. He widens his eyes. He opens one of the boxes. Its empty, the equipment missing.

A round small yellow light turns on in front of the cop. "Who's there?"

Nightwing exits the room and gets in the hallway. "Get your men out of here" he orders Brooklyn, who just raises an eyebrow.

"Why is that?"

"We don't know what we are facing."

An electric blast comes from the round light hitting the cop, knocking him unconscious. The heroes and the SWAT team look in the direction it came. From the door, steps out a man in a black techno suit, yellow gloves, the small round light on his chest, and a yellow helmet. Arthur Light.

The cops raise their automatic guns. "Hands up!" Brooklyn yells.

Light smirks. "You are not taking me." With that, electricity starts running through his suit, like charging it.

"What the…" Victor mumbles before a huge energy beam comes from Lights chest. Victor puts himself in the middle, trying to block the blast, but its too strong, sending him flying back, going through the wall, and landing in the middle of the club. The people in it scream in panic, running out of the club. The loud techno music still going on.

"What's the matter? Afraid of the light?" He says with a smirk. He raises his gloves and starts shooting energy beams from them. He hits another one of the cops, the rest exiting the hallway.

Nightwing does a cartwheel, avoiding the blast and getting himself to the dance floor. Light coming after continuing firing. Nightwing and Kory take cover behind the counter.

Victor fires his sonic canon at him, but he ducks and fires one of his own hitting Victor and sending him back. He fires at the remaining SWAT cops, who take cover behind the columns at the side of the room.

Nightwing looks at Kory. "I'll attract his fire; you circle him and attack him from behind." Kory nods as she moves to the other side of the counter.

Nightwing peeks out and throws a batarang. Light fires at it, the electricity beam disintegrating the batarang.

"How did he..." Nightwing manages to say before he receives a beam that sends him against the wall.

Kory sneaks past Light and tackles him to the ground. He struggles against her as he tries to get her off him, but she is too strong.

"Get out, you'll damage my suit!"

Kory elbows him to the face and delivers a mighty punch to the chest breaking the suit, and the yellow light turning off. That creates an explosion that sends her back. Light tries to get up, but before he knows it, he has Victor's sonic canon aiming down at him.

"Don't do it."

Light doesn't protest as he raises his hands in surrender. He looks around, three vigilantes and a whole SWAT team just for not paying the rent? It seems a little too much just for him.

Kory walks up to Nightwing and helps him up. "You are alright?"

Nightwing groans as he gets up, clutching his back. "That was not a confidence booster." Being almost knocked up by this guy sure wasn't the best look for him.

"I believed you did very good, your plan allowed me the opening to destroy his suit."

Nightwing smiles at her. "Come on, lets inspect the place."


Raven comes back to the living room, a large book in her hands. Gar watches as she walks up to the table in the center of the room and places the book on it.

"The book of Azar" she says. "I had seen that creature before." She starts going through the pages, looking for a specific one.

Gar tries to read some of the words, but they look more like hieroglyphs than words.

"Sanskrit."

Gar nods.

Raven stop. "Here." Gar focus on the page. In it, there is a drawing of the same exact creature as the one he had transformed into, but its fur brownish instead of green. A fire ring all around it and, people with torches to side, fearing it, or was it adoring him?

"What does it say?"

Raven reads "It says it's a guardian."

"A guardian of what?"

Raven reads the text directly below the drawing. "A guardian of Azarath…" she trails. "A creature summoned to protect."

"What does that mean?" Gar asks.

"I… I don't know" she lies. She looks at him. "It doesn't say much more."

Gar remains in silence, thinking. "Did you summon the creature?"

Raven shakes her head. "Again, I didn't do anything."

"But what if, without you knowing, you did? Like unconsciously. Like you felt you needed a guardian or something like that?"

Raven thinks about, this Gar kid sure had a lot of imagination. "In that case, a guardian for what?"


Nightwing, Victor and Kory enter Lights apartment on top of the club, two forensics behind them. Victor hits a switch on the wall and the room is illuminated by a ceiling light. In the middle of the room stands a desk. The walls and floors are covered by visual stimuli: pictures, paintings, newspapers articles…

This one was one of his residences, Mark Petersons tenement building being the other. It was the manager of the club who had made the call, informing the police of Light after he saw his face in the news.

Brooklyn and his team had taken Light to the police station, even if he hadn't committed the murders, he was going to stay locked for a long time. It doesn't come free to attack police officers.

Nightwing focuses on a shelf covered with books. He reads some of the titles. "Handbook on firearms", "US criminal review" … and many more about physics mostly.

Victor continues looking at the paintings. "Looks like our guy was an artist."

Nightwing nods in agreement. "Photography his true passion."

Victor opens the door to another room. Its like another study, with another desk and blueprints on it. "Nightwing" he calls. Nightwing enters the room. "Look."

Nightwing looks at the blueprints. It appears to be his suit blueprints. He had made it himself. "What I'm asking myself is how this random guy had access to Wayne's technology."

"You think this is our guy?"

"I don't know, although his tech was impressive, it doesn't match the murders."

Lieutenant Carson enters the room. "Good job" he says. Victor nods at him. Nightwing doesn't say anything and turns back to the blueprints. "They inform me, Light is already at the police station."

"We should check with the manager of the club, ask if he knows where Light was when the murders happened, check if he has an alibi." Victor says.

Carson nods. "Already have my men on it."

Nightwing focuses on a stack of small black cover notebooks on the side of the desk. He grabs one of them. Inside, the pages are covered with small, handwritten sentences. He starts going through the pages. "He used to work at Wayne Enterprises." Victor turns to him. He continues reading. "Was fired…"

"And stole some of their technology, I guess." Nightwing nods.

"Fifteen years I worked at that corrupt company" he reads. "Fifteen years in which I gave my all to them and that's how I get paid? All because of a woman. She misled me…" Nightwing stops reading as he looks at Victor. "If I'm not wrong, he had multiple abuse cases in his file."

"So, they fired his ass and blacklisted him."

Nightwing grabs another notebook. "Today I met Alisha at the club; god, she was so beautiful, and the way her..." He trails as he stops reading. He turns a few more pages. "I saw Sofía today..."

"Jesus, this guy" Victor says, not wanting Nightwing to continue reading.

Kory enters Lights bedroom. The ceiling light is on. She looks around, a small bed to the side of the room, a closed large window and board with polaroids in it. She focuses on them. The sound of a loud thunder echoes outside.

They appear to be photos of women, young women, but taken from afar, at a park, in the sidewalk, inside their house, taken from outside... Each one has a small handwritten date in the corner. One from a year ago, four months ago, two years, three weeks…

"X'Hal" she whispers, they are so many. Another lightning. One question comes to her mind. Why would he have pictures of women? Pictures clearly taken without their consent. She pauses as she thinks. A horrible thought coming to her mind. She gasps as she covers her mouth. Those poor women. Her eyes becoming watery.

"No…" Another lightning.

Her face slowly starts hardening. This man… no, this monster would pay for what he had done. She would make sure of that. She turns to the door and leaves the room. Her eyes flashing green with rage.

She passes next to Nightwing and Victor, who are still inspecting the place.

"Kory, what are you…?" Kory is gone before Nightwing can finish the questions. He raises an eyebrow.

He enters the bedroom, instantly noticing the board. He looks at the photographs. Each one is from a different girl with different dates each, this guy clearly was a sociopath. He focuses on the pictures, some of the women in their thirties, twenty, and maybe younger… he pauses. He widens his eyes.

"No, Kory…"


Nightwing, riding his N-Cycle speeds through the city, skillfully avoiding the traffic. He touches his earpiece. "Kory, come in! Don't do it! Its not worth it!" No answers. "Dammit!"

"Vic, come in."

"Man, what happened? You just left" comes Victor's voice.

"Vic, I need you to hack into the police station and deactivate the cameras inside and outside."

"Why would…?"

"Just do it!" Nightwing says interrupting.

Victor is taken aback. "Okay man, I'm on it."

"Nightwing out." Nightwing cuts the communication and accelerates even more, he just hopes he can make it in time, before it's too late.

Kory descends right outside of the police station and walks in. A determined look on her still-flashing green eyes.

She reaches the reception. "Where are the prisoners kept?" She asks the receptionist as she continues walking.

"The detention center? Downstairs, why…?"

Kory doesn't answer as she descends through the staircase. She reaches the detention center and walks through the cells until reaching the one Light is in and stops. Inside is Light standing up, he turns around and looks at her, confused.

"You again? I didn't do whatever you're accusing me of."

Kory doesn't say anything. That comment makes her even angrier as her eyes start glowing even stronger. She places both her hands on the metallic bar and using her super strength, bends them to the side, creating an opening. Light widens his eyes, not really knowing what to do. Kory steps in the cell.

Nightwing reaches the police station and gets off the N-Cycle without parking. His only thought being to stop Kory from making a terrible mistake. He sprints inside.

Kory walks up to Light, who remains frozen in his places.

"You will pay for what you have done." She would make sure no other woman would suffer because of him.

She places both of her hands to the side of his temple. Her hands start flashing green burning Lights face as he screams in pain.

"Please, NO! Mercy!" Light screams.

Kory doesn't say anything as she applies more pressure.

"You do not deserve mercy."

Nightwing descends the staircase, reaching the cells. There in front of him, inside the cells, stands Kory turned around, blocking his view of Light.

"Kory don't!"

Kory takes her hands off Light, his lifeless body falling to the side, his face completely burned. Slowly, Kory turns around, facing Nightwing, blood on her hands.


Nightwing is on the roof of a building close to the police station, its dark, rain pouring over him. He is angry, very angry as he paces around the roof. She had killed him. He rips off his mask and throws it away. He walks to the edge of the building and gazes down. She had walked straight to his cell and killed him in cold blood. The police wouldn't investigate, after all, they think he had killed two of them.

He wasn't armed, he had already been neutralized. She had executed him.

Richard lets out an angry cry that echoes through the sky, nobody close enough to hear him. His soaked hair sticking to his face.

A few seconds later, Kory lands on the roof a few feet behind him.

"I will not apologize for my actions."

Richard doesn't say anything as he remains with his back turned to her. Kory takes a step toward him.

"Richard, tell me he did not do it. Tell me I made a mistake, tell me I made a wrong assumption and i will turn myself in" she says, tears falling from her face, the anger already starting to fade away. Richard turns to her, they make eye contact, but he doesn't say anything. "I knew it" she says as she looks down.

There are a couple of seconds before Richard says anything. "Why would you do it?"

Kory looks up. "He had the pictures on his room… the women he had abused…" she trails having difficulty even wording it. "He was proud of it... Richard, those poor women" she says trying to make him reason.

He takes a couple of steps to her. "And that's why we were gonna make sure he stayed in prison! Alive!" He says raising his tone

"He did not deserve to live!" she says matching his tone.

"That's not your call! We are heroes, we catch the bad guys; we don't execute them. I did not kill Zucco when I had the chance in Blackgate."

"This was not about vengeance, Richard, it was about preventing it from happening again."

She pauses.

"What if the next time he had done it with a younger girl? What if the next time he had killed her also?" She tries to argue. "How do we not know if he has already killed several of them?"

"We can't decide somebody's life based on an if."

Kory turns to the side and crosses her arms, he is too stubborn, but so is she. "In my planet, we would have killed him instantly and celebrated it. Those who do things like that, are no people, they are monsters." She isn't giving up.

"You are not on your planet! You are on earth! Here we take them to trial, and even if he is guilty, we do not kill them!"

Silence.

"Kory, we have to believe that they can change, that society can change."

"Then you are the naive one, Richard. People like him cannot change."

Another silence.

Kory turns to him, her look softening. "Richard, you saw the pictures, there were so many, some of them so young." Her eyes becoming watery with the memory. "Can you look me in the eyes and guarantee he was going to go to prison? And if he got out, he would not do it again."

Richard stays silent for a couple of seconds, that is a difficult question to answer. A lightning flashes on the sky, followed by the loud thunder.

"We don't kill" he finally says.

"Clorbag!" She yells in Tamaranian, not being able to control the impulse to swear in her native language. "You came out with this?! Or was it the Batman that installed it in your mind when you were just a little one?" She shoots back, pointing at him.

Richard is taken aback but decides to ignore that last part. "That's what separates them from us, we wouldn't be any better than them if we did."

"No, Richard, I would never do something like that, I would never be friends with someone who did such a despicable thing, and if not killing is what separates you from him, then I do not want anything to do with you!"

"Kory…"

They stay silent for a couple more seconds. Her words echoing in both their minds. The rain still pouring over them. Another lightning followed by the thunder.

"I said what I said."

"Kory…" he tries again. "Killing should be our limit" he says in a softer tone than before.

"Richard, I have met people like him in the past, monsters. You cannot convince me that what I did was wrong. Today I saved a future woman from him."

"Kory, you killed a disarmed man in cold blood! We must have a higher morale than the rest of the people we can't kill!"

Kory pauses, silence. "I guess there is nothing to talk about. If this rule of yours is what keeps you away from turning into someone like him, then perhaps it is not such a good idea we stay together."

Another silence.

"Perhaps it's not."

Neither giving up. Both having too much relation to their argument to accept the other. How can he get mad at her for killing him? How can she kill someone in cold blood and not have any remorse about it?

Another lightning. The rain intensifying around them.

Kory takes a step back. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Richard." With that, she shoots herself into the sky in a green beam.

Richard watches her go. He lets out another angry cry as he punches the floor, his eyes becoming watery.

A bit of a complex debate on this one. Both come from separate backgrounds with different backstories, so each has their own way of thinking. Let me know whose side are you on. I tried to keep it as subtle as possible. Please like and review.