HELLOOO! Welcome back!
For everyone who is new to the story, please be advised that this is an AU!
So, if you haven't read PART 1 ~ Titans Go!, go do that now! I just finished a major revision and cleaned up some details and I think it's pretty dang good if I do say so myself ;)
s/14196420/1/The-New-Teen-Titans-Part-1-Titans-Go
Canon compliance is completely out the window, and some of the characters' backstories and introductions *cough* have been substantially altered to suit the plot and my, more realistic, version of this world. (I reject your reality and substitute it with my own) So—if you see something that isn't 'right,' it is most likely on purpose.
Because I wrote the story that I wanted to read.
I hope you guys love it as much as I do!
On to Part 2! Booyah!
Chapter 1 ~ Opening Moves
"Again!"
Raven stepped forward at the command, her wrapped fist snapping out in a now-familiar motion.
She hit the pad once, twice, Dick absorbing the blows with smooth, strong movements as he danced through the steps of the drill with her. Her breath burned in her chest, her arms aching with every motion. She punched again, hitting the pad squarely, her stance set exactly how Dick had taught her.
"Block!" he called, and his fist shot out towards her head.
A rippling sheet of darkness materialized in the air by her side, and Dick's blow hit it with a solid, dull thump.
He raised the sparring pad again, twisting and stepping to the side, and the dark shield she had summoned dissipated as fast as it had appeared. He kept moving, following the pattern of the combination, keeping each movement slow and precise. The pad moved to a new position braced against his side and Raven kicked out at it as hard as she could. The top of her foot connected with a satisfying smack and he nodded, shifting his weight. She pulled her leg back and let the motion spin her around, turning to come at his other side as he braced again. She struck out for the next punch, but it felt weak, her muscles burning with exhaustion, her wrist not properly aligned.
Dick stepped back smoothly, lips twitching down, his bright blue eyes missing nothing, and he raised the pad for the final hit.
"Shift!" he yelled loudly.
His voice carried across the gym, from their spot sparring in the center of the open space to the opposite wall lined with exercise equipment.
Garfield bared his teeth at the command, running at a near sprint, his green skin drenched with sweat. The treadmill belt flew beneath his feet, each step pounding through his body.
He pushed hard off of his back foot, keeping the rhythm, and leapt forward. His body shifted, bones grinding and rearranging under his skin, muscles straining and snapping into new shapes, and a thick coat of green fur covered his black suit in a blink. Small, lithe paws hit the rubber surface of the belt instead of hands, and he kept running, four legs carrying him forward instead of two.
Raven threw her arm out with a huff of breath, striking the protective pad as Dick raised it up by the side of his head. But she over-extended, her weight thrown off balance, and just clipped the edge of the square.
Dick saw the uncontrolled move coming and compensated easily, turning his body just enough to catch her momentum. He watched, waiting, and as soon as she let out her breath—her body relaxing as she completed the combination—he moved.
He pushed forward in a lighting quick step, getting in close and planting his foot in the middle of her stance. His arm hooked around hers, still too far extended from her clumsy strike, twisting her off her center of gravity.
She jerked back, violet eyes going wide, her footing broken by his legs tangling hers, and lost her balance completely.
"Shift!" Dick yelled again, and the slim, light green fox morphed without breaking stride, its body expanding outward into a larger canine. The wolf snarled as its paws hit the treadmill, its fur thicker and darker, sharp teeth bared.
Raven's back slammed into the floor. The thick black padding that covered the concrete subfloor of the entire gym cushioned her fall, Dick's hold on her upper arm taking some of her weight and slowing her down, but the force still knocked the air half out of her.
Dick lunged forward in another lightning fast step. He landed on one knee on the mat beside her, pinning her arm out to the side, and drove his other fist down towards her abdomen.
A wall of shadow exploded into being just above her body, the darkness forming a solid, impenetrable barrier, and he slammed into it, his wrapped hand connecting with a muffled thud.
The shield rippled slightly under the blow, but held, his fist stopped a hand-span away from her stomach.
Raven gaped up at him through the darkness, sprawled out on the floor, her chin-length black hair soaked through with sweat and snarled around her face. She sucked in gasping breaths, her chest heaving.
Dick straightened up, still kneeling beside her, and his face split into a grin.
Kori let out a whoop of excitement, clapping from where she watched at the edge of the sparring ring, her red hair tumbling in curls of living flame over one shoulder.
"Well done," Dick said fervently. A soft wave of pride rolled off of him, rushing through Raven's body with a soft glow.
She glared up at him with all the venom she could muster, still just trying to breathe. The shield hovering over her melted back into nothing, and she grudgingly took the hand he offered to her, letting him pull her back up.
"Damn it," she hissed, her eyes flashing with annoyance as she rubbed her shoulder. "How are you so fast?"
"Years of practice," he chuckled, barely even winded, then he leaned in slightly. "Any luck on that little time-stopping trick?"
"You…" She stared at him in shock, then snapped her mouth closed with a scowl. "No!" she hurled back. "I've told you, I have no idea how I even did that in the first place!"
"Well, thought it was worth a shot." He shrugged, still smiling as her dark glare intensified, and stepped back to give her some space to collect herself, looking over to check on Gar.
"Most wonderful job, Raven!" Kori beamed at her, practically bouncing up and down with glee, but stayed put on the outside of the wide circle of glyphs marked onto the floor.
Raven dragged the hair off of her sweaty cheeks, her bangs plastered down to her forehead, and shot her a half-annoyed, half-grateful look, trying to unstick the loose long-sleeve black shirt from her body as best she could. Two hours into Dick's ridiculous training regimen, and the alien looked just as fresh as she had when they started, her muscular, six-foot-tall, perfect hourglass figure on full display in a pair of tight black leggings and a bright pink sports bra, the color clashing brilliantly with the orange undertone to her flawless golden skin, not a drop of moisture on her. Because Tamaraneans, apparently, didn't sweat to regulate their body temperature.
"Thanks Kori," she muttered, trying not to take the injustice personally, "but I don't think that really counts as a good job."
"Raven, we've only been at this for three weeks, you've made amazing progress." Dick met her eyes evenly, dark hair in artfully messy spikes, his blue t-shirt highlighting the bright blue of his eyes. Sweat dampened the fabric, showing off the defined muscles of his torso underneath. "You couldn't even block consistently with your powers when we started, and now you're reacting instinctively with fully controlled, localized, manifested shields."
"You preformed excellently!" Kori added. "Your strikes were all well timed and your strength is improving greatly."
Raven groaned, shaking out her aching arms.
Dick nodded in confirmation. "The point of that wasn't for you to be able to evade my attack—it was to test what you did when I surprised you." He raised one eyebrow, still smiling. "No matter how good you are, there will always be an opponent who is better. How you react when you get knocked down can be the difference between life and death."
She shot him a look. "You're just lucky I didn't kill you on accident."
He smirked, then turned to call to Gar again over his shoulder. "Shift!" he commanded.
The wolf snapped back into a human body, Garfield's black, skin-tight suit and green face rematerializing as the fur shot back into his skin. He stumbled slightly, the tempo of his run thrown off by the change in gait, but kept his balance.
A few more seconds and the treadmill beeped, telling him he had met his mileage marker. His steps slowed, jogging to a stop, and he bent forward, bracing his hands on his knees, wheezing as he tried to catch his breath.
"Great job!" Dick called.
Gar raised a weak thumbs up over his head without looking.
Dick laughed softly. "Take a break, I'm going to do a few more rounds with Raven and then it's your turn."
Gar groaned, straightening up and wiping his face. He hopped down off of the massive treadmill with a grimace. "Oh joy," he grumbled, still out of breath. "Because running five miles while rearranging your skeleton every ten fucking seconds isn't fun enough."
His eyes flicked up to Raven as he said it, and their gazes met for half a second.
They both looked away just as fast, pointedly ignoring the interaction.
Kori laughed softly, and Dick just shook his head, one side of his mouth twisted up. Nearly a month after what Victor was now referring to as the 'waffle incident,' and the two of them were still walking on tiptoes around each other.
Raven fought back her own groan as Dick moved back to stand in front of her, her body threatening mutiny. She squared up to him, clenching her jaw and setting her feet, raising her fists in front of her.
"Okay, focus on regaining your stance after you land the kick, you're stepping too far to the left—"
"Hey, Boy-Wonder!" Victor's voice boomed out from the speakers in the ceiling above them, the heavy beat of the music Dick had turned on in the background cutting out. "I need you in ops for a sec."
"Be right there!" Dick yelled back. He looked back at Raven as the music came back on, relaxing his stance, and she sighed in relief.
He shook his head with a smirk. "Not so fast—think you can handle Star for a round?"
Raven glared at him, then glanced back over her shoulder. Garfield sat on the floor by the treadmills, attempting to stretch out his legs, Koriand'r talking animatedly to him, her hands flying through the air as she gestured excitedly. The alien's long ponytail swung behind her with every movement, glowing with a brilliant, exuberant light, fuchsia and orange and scarlet curls all tangled together, brightening to a near incandescent yellow at the tips.
Raven swallowed, her chest sinking. She looked down at the chalk circle drawn on the floor, and the ring of dark symbols inscribed just inside it, her spell forming an invisible barrier to the energy within and without. It had been Dick's idea to set it up, turning the warding spell she used to contain any accidental slips of her power while she slept into a sort of practice bubble—as close to a safe space as they could get for her to train with her powers.
As soon as Kori stepped over the line of glyphs, the alien's potent emotions would hit her full-force.
"It would be good for you to practice with her," Dick added quietly, watching her face.
She nodded, taking a deep breath.
"Star, try the drill a few times with Raven, then you can beat up Gar as much as you want." He waved the other girl over, grinning.
Garfield let out a dramatic groan, flopping limply back onto the floor as Kori practically skipped over to join them within the circle, her bright green eyes flashing with excitement.
Dick backed away, tossing the training pads to Kori, watching both of the girls carefully. Raven's face had gone blank, her eyes narrowed slightly in concentration, while Kori stood casually, trying to keep herself as loose and relaxed as possible.
He shook his head, trying not to stare at Kori more than strictly necessary. He had ordered her an entire small wardrobe—including plenty of shirts—but she seemed to have some kind of an aversion to them. Not that he was complaining.
He turned, walking quickly towards the elevator door in the center of the back wall, pulling the wraps off of his hands as he went.
The elevator let him out on the main floor, and he followed the raised walkway around the edge of the large open living space towards the server room. The metal door slid open with a soft hiss as he reached it.
"Vic, pull up the feed in the gym," he called. "I wanna see—" he stopped short, just on the other side of the door, taking in the two large figures inside.
"I've already got it," Vic replied. The metal half of his face glinted in the lights from the array of computer screens as he half swiveled around in his chair, tossing a look back at Dick over his shoulder.
Bruce just stood silently at his side, a hulking shadow, watching the live security video of the floor above them, Kori and Raven visible moving within the sparring circle.
Dick sighed, walking over to stand on Bruce's other side.
"You could have mentioned you were coming," he muttered, but there wasn't much feeling in the words. Bruce was Bruce—communication had never exactly been one of his strong suits, and at this point, sneaking up on people had just become permanently ingrained in his personality.
He focused on the screen instead, leaning in slightly towards the monitor.
Kori moved gracefully, gently leading Raven through the movements of the combination they had been working on, her radiant hair swinging behind her. Raven kept up with her, her punches and kicks jerkier, not as confident, but already so much stronger than she had been when they had started.
Bruce watched them, eyes narrowing just slightly every time Raven's shield appeared in the air in front of her to block Kori's strikes.
They completed the combination all the way through a handful of times, no mistakes and no surprises, and Dick tried not to smile too widely, his chest swelling with pride. Raven retreated past the edge of her spell that marked the sparring ring, visibly relaxing, and Gar took her place with Kori inside—giving Raven a wide berth as he passed her.
"So, what's the surprise visit for?" Dick asked, looking up at Bruce. He kept one eye on the monitor, watching Gar's progress as Kori began to walk him through the combination. The shapeshifter picked up the drill quickly, enthusiastic as always, though with slightly less natural grace as Raven, his training at the hands of his former team showing through.
"The official clearance came through," Bruce replied, his deep voice completely emotionless. "The alien Koriand'r has been officially recognized as a legal denizen of Earth. She has been granted political asylum, and appointed as Ambassador for the planet Tamaran, and the Tower—for all technical purposes—has been designated as her foreign embassy."
"Wow, you can do that?" Vic looked up at the man, surprised.
"So it would seem. I have brought the paperwork, there are several documents that she will need to sign."
Vic grinned. "Star's gonna be thrilled."
Dick nodded, but turned his attention fully on Bruce. That was just paperwork—there was no reason for him to have delivered it in person, even if he had already been in the area for business. "And…the real reason?" he asked.
Bruce just stared at him impassively, those dark eyes unreadable.
Dick raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms casually over his chest, staying silent.
Vic looked back and forth between the two of them with his mismatched eyes, eyebrows raised.
"The Justice League had some…attempted data breaches within the last few weeks," Bruce rumbled. "They were unsuccessful, and we don't know what the actual target was, but buried within the chunk of information that they attempted to access were all the files and data we have on the Tower."
That was not what he was expecting.
"What?" he asked, shocked. "How is that possible? No one outside the League should even know this place exists—how would they have known to look for it in the first place—"
"Exactly."
Their eyes met, and Dick knew at once what the man was thinking. "No one here would have leaked information," he said firmly.
"Whoa! Hold up, what?" Victor's voice rose suddenly in anger, "you think one of us—"
Dick cut him off with a sharp wave of his hand, "Bruce—"
"I didn't say that," Bruce said calmly.
"No, but you implied it."
"I do not think either of you are responsible. If you wanted to sell League secrets you could have done so well before now." One dark eyebrow raised almost imperceptibly.
Dick had to fight to keep his expression blank. Vic shot a glance at him then looked away guiltily, both of them very aware that they had each been responsible for a major breach in League security in just the last month alone.
But that meant Bruce was talking about one of the other three. Dick narrowed his eyes up at the man, the gears turning in his mind, then turned back to the screen, to Gar and Raven and Koriand'r.
"Well, Garfield doesn't make any sense either," Dick said, his scowl mirroring Bruce's exactly, thinking of the boy's previous team. "The Doom Patrol may not be as enmeshed in the League as we are, but they wouldn't have any benefit to an information leak—it would put Gar in as much danger as any of us." He shook his head.
"And no one but us and the League even knows that Star—Koriand'r—is on the planet…" Victor added.
The public had not been made aware of what had actually taken place when her ship had crashed, and no one had even seen her entering the Tower, thanks to Raven transporting the five of them directly from the Gordanian ship into the middle of the living room. She hadn't been outside—apart from the roof—in nearly three weeks, and hadn't had contact with anyone not in their group.
Which only left one.
The boys traded a look.
Dick let out a sharp breath through his nose, his eyes closing briefly before landing back on Bruce with a scowl, planting his hands on his hips.
"You have made the League's opinion on Raven very clear, and I've told you—"
"I know you believe her to be trustworthy—" Bruce cut in evenly.
"She is—"
"—But in our line of work, even the most inconsequential piece of information in the wrong hands can be deadly." The man's dark eyes narrowed, monotone voice completely devoid of emotion. "I am not accusing the girl of anything, I am just reminding you that you know nothing about her. And that is dangerous, whether you choose to admit it or not."
Dick clenched his jaw, hands tightening into fists at his sides.
"What did you find," he demanded.
Bruce regarded him stonily for a moment, then reached up into the inner pocket of his dark suit jacket, the flat light from the computer screens highlighting the faint crisscrossing of scars across his hand. "This is everything we have on the hack. Take a look and make any necessary security upgrades."
He set a small black flash drive on the desk with a nod at Victor. "There are also some…interesting missing persons reports from this area." He clasped his hands behind his back, standing perfectly still, and met Dick's eyes firmly, a weight seeming to settle on his broad shoulders. "It could be nothing, but you should be aware of any potential threats."
Dick stared down at the flash drive. He let out the breath he had been holding with a huff, forcing his body to relax, then looked up to nod stiffly at Bruce. "Thanks," he said curtly, "we'll take a look."
Bruce nodded back. He glanced once more at the feed from the gym, dark eyes missing nothing, then turned his glare back on Dick. "It seems everything here is…running smoothly," he said tonelessly. "My presence is required in Gotham for the foreseeable future, so I will be unable to make the trip back out for some time. You may contact me if you need anything, and I will send your requests through to the appropriate people."
He nodded again to both boys and turned to walk silently towards the exit. "I'll see myself out."
"Always a pleasure," Vic muttered under his breath.
"Bruce—wait—"
The man stopped on the other side of the door, turning his head slightly to the side in acknowledgment as Dick hurried out after him.
"Bruce—" Dick frowned at the man, then sighed, running a hand over his face. He took a deep breath as the metal door slid shut behind them.
"Thank you," he said earnestly, "for the information. We'll look into it. And thanks for coming by, it's…it's good to see you."
Dark eyes settled on him.
"Are you…uh…" Dick cleared his throat, trying to get the question out properly. "How is…everything else going?"
He winced. "Look, I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay…it's been a big change for me moving out…and I know it's probably been hard—"
"My work continues as it always has," Bruce cut in darkly. "And as I have told both you and Alfred on more than one occasion, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
He shifted to face Dick fully, his dark, towering figure filling the walkway, and one eyebrow arched upwards. "I do not require the two of you to babysit me, nor do I appreciate the attempt."
Dick frowned, faint heat creeping up his neck that his calls surreptitiously checking in with Alfred had been found out. "We're not babysitting you," he said quickly, "We just...we're allowed to call and talk to each other, it doesn't mean we're conspiring against you…"
Bruce leveled a flat look at him.
"I Just thought I would ask," Dick scowled back. "It's weird for me not living with you two anymore, and I know the…anniversary…is hard for you and…" he trailed off with a sigh, shaking his head. "Never mind."
Bruce regarded him silently for a moment, face unreadable, then let out a heavy sigh of his own.
"It is…different without you in the house," he said in a much softer tone, "but I am fine. Life moves on. You do not need to look after me anymore, whatever Alfred may imply to the contrary."
One groomed, black eyebrow raised again, his mouth twisting up in a hint of a smile, dark eyes glinting. "Perhaps, with this group, you will finally be able to put these mothering skills of yours to good use."
"Ha-ha." Dick smiled back at him, seeing the rare softness hiding deep in those hard, dark eyes. "We still worry about you, though," he said quietly, "out there on your own. And now without my sparkling wit to distract all the bad guys, who's going to stop you from getting yourself killed every other night?"
"I managed just fine before you fell into my life and turned everything on its head," Bruce replied dryly.
Dick rolled his eyes, still smiling. "Nice try, but I'm still going to call to check in on you."
Bruce's expression snapped back to his usual glower. He let out another heavy exhale, shaking his head in resignation, then turned and marched for the elevator.
He stepped in and pressed the button to return to the ground floor, glaring at Dick from the shadows. "I have a project in Gotham that requires my full attention—as do you now, here."
His deep voice softened just a bit, face still hidden from view, but Dick heard the pride in the tone, the approval. "Focus on your team," he said, "not me. They need you."
The doors slid shut in front of him.
Dick stared after him, mouth half twisted up, then shook his head with another sigh. He turned around, taking a deep breath before heading back in through the door to ops.
Victor sat in front of the array of monitors in silence, lines of scrawling code filling every screen as Dick joined him, the flash drive Bruce had given them just visible where he had plugged it into the computer.
"They didn't get past the firewalls," he said after a few minutes, "but damn, this is sophisticated." His eyes shuttled back and forth rapidly across the screen, taking in the information much faster than any human could keep up with. "There's any number of possible targets that they could have been after. The Tower info—our info—is on the list, but it's not for sure that's what they were really after. And why hack the JL to get to us?" He shook his head, nose wrinkling in confusion. "That doesn't make any sense. I mean—we aren't exactly big fish here."
"Can you protect our systems from that kind of breach?"
"Yeah, no problem. They won't get past my security either."
"What was the other stuff he put on there? Missing persons cases…?" Dick trailed off, leaning in over Victor's shoulder as he closed the program and opened the other portion of the files on the flash drive.
Copies of a string of police files opened one by one across the screens. Missing persons reports, all from the last several months up to a few weeks ago, all from within a fifty mile radius of the center of the city.
"Fuck."
Vic clicked through the documents, and picture after picture flashed in front of them—all young, teenage girls, petite, fair skinned, and dark haired. And all looking a hell of a lot like Raven.
"That can't be good…"
Both boys stared at the information splashed across the screens, dread pooling in their stomachs.
"What is this," Vic breathed, "like a serial killer or something?"
Dick shook his head silently, the computer light reflecting in his bright blue eyes as he scanned the documents."That's way too fast of an escalation, there would be much more time between each victim."
Vic shot a sideways look at him, slightly alarmed at the evenness of his tone—and the fact that he even knew that information in the first place. "So…what?"
"I don't know, but we need to keep an eye on it."
"Shouldn't we help?
"If you can find anything, yes, I can get it anonymously to whoever is running the investigation."
"No, I don't mean just on the computer, I mean—we have to help!" Vic shot back, anger building in his voice. "We can't just let—"
"Let them do their jobs?" Dick raised an eyebrow, pinning him with his stare. "In what way do you think we are better equipped to handle this than the trained professionals working on it now?" He looked back to the monitors, shaking his head, stomach twisting painfully at the innocent, smiling faces staring, hauntingly back at him. "If we insert ourselves into the investigation then we just draw attention onto us and away from the real suspects. If there was evidence that this has anything to do with meta-human or supernatural abilities, then it would be a different story. But there isn't—and we don't even know if this is connected to Raven at all."
"What?" Vic asked incredulously.
"Do you know how many people go missing every day in a city this size?" He clenched his jaw, meeting Vic's gaze as confidently as he could. "This may be something, or it could be a total coincidence—random data points that when taken on their own completely warp the real picture."
He pushed away from the desk. "Bruce isn't one to jump to conclusions, but he sees monsters around every corner." And with good reason, but Dick didn't say that out loud.
Coincidences like this didn't happen to people like them.
He didn't know what this was, but it felt…ominous somehow. Like something was starting.
The opening moves of a much larger game—on a board that he couldn't even see yet.
Victor frowned at the screen, but relaxed slightly, the tension bleeding out of his shoulders.
"I'll look into this, see if we can find anything that will help…" Dick ran a hand absently through his hair, then grimaced, "ugh, I need to shower." He had been up well before the others, completing his normal workout routine before they had even made it into the gym.
"Go." Vic sighed, closing the police reports, unable to look at them anymore. "I'll start working through this code, it's gonna take a while. And we wouldn't want you all stinky when you tell your girlfriend the good news."
Dick frowned at him. "She's not my—oh, you're impossible."
"And you're just as bad as Gar. Hopeless, the pair of you."
"What, and you've just got so much game, huh?"
Vic jerked a silver thumb at his chest with a smirk, "freshman varsity football, dude."
Dick laughed softly, shaking his head as he turned back to the door. "Yeah, well—" he dropped his voice down, impersonating Bruce's rough growl— "I'm Batman."
Victor's booming laughter followed him all the way out into the hallway, not quite managing to chase away the last foreboding echoes lingering in the air.