The crowd parted almost naturally, without even thinking, as a woman led by a massive dog walked in the other direction. A strip of dark red cloth was tied around her head, covering her obvious blind eyes, and keeping her short, shaggily cut black hair from her face. The dog was just as shaggy as its master, massive enough for the woman to rest her hand on its back without the slightest bend in her back. The woman herself was tall, slim, and most would exaggerate that she was as skinny as the strange stick on her back. Her clothes were long, slightly ragged, and all black. The strange stick looked slightly curved and almost looked as though it bore a hilt with a bloody gem embedded in the base. However, a second glance showed that it was a stick, and nothing more. No one really gave the woman a second look, and she let the massive beast guide her to a dock. Her unseeing gaze turned towards the bay, where sunlight glanced off clear waters and shadows fell from a peculiar tower. "If I may ask, sir," the woman spoke suddenly. The touring man in a loud Hawaiian shirt jumped in shock. He hadn't thought the woman had noticed him walk up next to her. "Well, sure," he replied, more than a bit surprised. His pudgy hands were clamped around a huge camera, aimed towards the T-shaped tower. "What do you need to know?" "What city am I in?" the woman asked. "What am I looking at right now?" "Well, we're in Black City," the man answered. "We're looking at Titan's Tower, where the Teen Titans are." "Teen Titans?" the woman didn't seem as confused as the man originally believed. "Who are they? Certainly not the creatures of myth." The man thought he heard her whisper to herself, "I've killed almost all of them myself," but shrugged it off. "No, they're superheroes," the man laughed, rubbing the back of his head genially. "You haven't heard of them? There's Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven." The woman visibly stiffened, head rising suddenly. "The last one you said," she murmured. "The Raven. A girl? Do you mean a girl with dark powers? Is that the Raven of which you speak?" The man was thoroughly bemused. The woman acted like she had no idea of what he was talking about, but described Raven to the hilt. Well, as best one could describe the nearly silent and shadow-hidden sorceress. "Yeah," he blinked. "Yeah, that's Raven all right. Do you know her?" The woman did not reply. From nowhere and nothing, the ground rumbled and the sky echoed an explosion. Screams rose up to greet those sudden sounds, and the tourist jumped in shock, his cream white fisherman's hat falling from his sweaty, bald head. "Someone's robbing the bank!" a scream rang out. "Someone call for help!" "Well, this might be your chance to meet with Raven," the man said, eyes wide in shock and alarm. The woman turned about, the dog faithfully at her side. The dog looked up at her with impossible red eyes, and the two began to walk away. The man jerked in amazement. "Don't tell me you're going to try and go there!" he shouted. "You'll get yourself killed! Leave the heroic stuff to the heroes!" The woman turned on heel and smiled briefly, almost sadly. "I'm going to find a very old friend of mine," she murmured. "If I have to go where a battle is to see her, then so be it. Don't worry about me." The dog began to walk away swiftly, guiding the woman away. The tourist just stared in shock. When she rounded a corner and vanished, the man forgot that he had ever seen her, ever spoken to her, or ever even glanced sideways at her. She was gone from his memory. ---------- "Get ready for the big bang, baby!" The Titans barely had time to scatter before an explosion tore another vast hole into the ground. The brothers Bada and Boom, most creatively named for their use of gunpowder and flamethrowers, were standing outside the first bank of Black City to confront the Teen Titans. A hole was blasted in the side of the building, and a highly compressed orb of powder sat near the vault. "Starfire, wait!" Robin called, holding up a hand to stay the coming blast. "If you hit them, they might blow up!" Starfire calmed the blaze in her hands, eyes worried. The team stood still, thinking desperately of something that could stave off any further explosions. Bada and Boom laughed uproariously at their near-assured victory, turning towards the bank once more. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" The words hung in the air as wicked shadows swallowed the explosive near the vault door. Raven, resident sorceress of Black City, caught the volatile sphere and gave the brothers the same look she gave everyone. Raven felt no compassion for the world around her, and the coldness was reflected in her dark eyes. So far, the only time she had truly shown any emotion was within the confines of her meditation mirror. Of course, that was because those forms of herself were simply pure emotion, so it could not be helped. Despite the fact that they had just lost their exploding ball, Bada and Boom grinned. Boom, the lankier of the brothers and wielder of flamethrowers, aimed at Raven swiftly and shot a volley of searing fire towards her. Raven reacted quickly, but was unprepared for what would happen from those actions. She threw the explosive away and leapt back, arms coming up to guard what they could. The explosion tore the street apart from one sidewalk to the next. Raven felt the heat rip her pale flesh and grimaced in pain. Her hands steamed and bleed, blisters appearing almost instantly from the heat. The occurring force threw her through the air and the girl didn't even want to think about how hard she was going to hit the wall. Rather abruptly, she stopped, someone's arms around her. Raven turned to thank whatever teammate had kept her from crashing into a wall and paused. She had to think, but she knew she had seen that face hidden behind red cloth before. The person, a woman, smiled at her and set her on her feet before turning to look blindly at the brothers. "Children shouldn't play with fire," she snickered to herself, reaching over her shoulder and pulling at the strange stick strapped to her back. Light flashed off a gleaming silver blade and the blind woman stood calmly before the villains. The brothers laughed heartily at the woman, knees buckling. "So what are you going to do about it?" Bada shouted at her. "How're you supposed to even try and fight us?" The woman smiled back, her body surprisingly loose despite holding such an obviously sharp blade. Bada was suddenly pulled down by something, the barrel of gunpowder on his back smashing against the sidewalk. "Who's there?" the man shouted. He choked as water doused him and the fallen gunpowder, ruining what remaining explosive there was left. Bada cursed angrily and stood up, shaking himself to get the water away. A cat purred somewhere at his ankles, and he looked down. A small housecat made entirely of water circled his legs, staring up at him with strange, clear eyes. "What the hell?" Bada stammered, shaking his head in confusion. "What are you?" The cat smiled, though it was impossible, and suddenly grew in size, becoming a terrible wildcat that leered at the man. He took a step back, and the cat circled around him, stretching to ridiculous lengths and surrounding him easily. "What is this?" he demanded. "Get away from me! What are you?" The cat let out a howl that echoed in the eerie silence of the battle, and it melted away to a formless orb that contained the man. The woman holding the sword smiled again and snapped her fingers. A tremendous serpent appeared at her feet, lashing out a forked tongue. It slithered its ice-made body over the ground and struck the water, freezing the liquid and criminal within. Bada had a look of absolute terror on his face, frozen by the ice. His brother turned towards the woman, who stood with a smile on her face. His eyes were brimming with tears of hatred, rage, and he took a shaking aim at her. "You bitch!" he screamed. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you dead!" Boom sent a massive wall of flame at her, and grinned when she vanished in the searing fire. The Titans drew a collective gasp, and Raven stared in horror at what happened. Boom ended the blast and began to laugh wickedly as the smoke settled slowly. He turned on the heroes. "Now I'm going to barbeque you freaks!" he shrieked. His laughter grew louder, near maddening as he took aim once again. "Did you honestly think I was dead?" The voice rang out from the smoke and ash. All turned towards it. Steps sounded in the silence, and the glistening blade appeared from the black, smoldering cinders. The woman stepped into the light, still smiling, sword held loosely at her side. Boom snarled, baring his teeth as a bead of cold sweat rolled down his face. "I came here to find someone that I left eight years ago," the woman chuckled. "Your pathetic traps aren't going to stop me from finding her. So unless you want me to defeat you like I did your companion, then I advise you stop whatever you've decided to do." Boom's eyes widened in fear, muscles tense. "You're just a blind freak!" he cried. The woman laughed mirthlessly, walking slowly towards Boom. "I may be blind, but that doesn't mean I can't win," she murmured. "Do you know why you can't defeat me? I'm blind, but I'm a demon. Demons don't lose to humans." Boom's hands shook, and he sent more flames from his weapons. The woman spun on heel, sword coming up and cutting through the fire. Her movements were fluid, at ease and swift. Something flashed around the blade, and the red fire was blown away as black flames surrounded the sword. The woman rushed forwards through the horizontal pillars of fire and leapt up. She cut through the lines that fed fuel to the flamethrowers and the blaze stopped instantly. Boom cowered as the woman turned slightly, flipped the sword in her hands, and swung. The dull edge of the one-sided sword hit Boom full in the ribs and he coughed sharply. He fell to the ground, unconscious. The battle was over. "Oh my," Starfire said softly. "That was..." "Wow," Cyborg murmured. The woman spun the sword in hand and slid it cleanly and easily into its sheath on her back. The dog, which had been standing almost faithfully at Raven's side, barked once at the woman. She turned immediately, gaze turned towards the sorceress. "Your hands," she called to the girl. Raven almost jumped at the sudden words. She looked at her burnt hands and found them shaking from pain and amazement. "Are they hurt badly? I can smell the blood." When Raven gave no reply, the woman began to walk across the damaged street, avoiding the areas that burned and were now holes. She stopped a few feet before Raven, her hands carefully reaching for the girl. "I suppose I should have run a bit faster," she said with a faint chuckle. "I'm sorry I didn't get here before they decided to try and blow you up." Her long fingers took hold of Raven's wrists gently and she lifted the bleeding hands. She twitched her head and the cat made of water appeared, standing on the woman's arm. It sniffed at Raven's hands and turned to formless, cool liquid. It surrounded the sorceress' hands and remained there without moving. "Sorry again, whoever you might be," the woman chuckled again. "I hate to be so impertinent, but I'm looking for someone. Do you know where I might find the Teen Titans? I'm looking for Raven." "Well, you sure found us," Robin laughed. "We're the Titans. You just helped us beat a couple of criminals. And the girl you're talking to is Raven." The woman's head twisted slightly in shock and she turned blindly to Raven. "Is that really you, Raven?" she asked with a smile. "You have to say something or I won't know. I'm blind, remember?" Raven swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "It's me," she murmured. "It's me. Why are you here? Why are you looking for me? You were part of my life for eight straight years, Chaos, and you just left. Why are you here now?" The woman chuckled slightly, shaking her head. "I have a lot to apologize for," she, Chaos, murmured. "I don't think I should have vanished without a goodbye, but I had to. Sorry about that, and about not getting here before you were burned. I have one last thing to apologize for, but I won't mean it." "What's that?" Raven questioned. Chaos smiled, bent down, and kissed Raven gently. Raven jerked in response, but found herself unable to break the kiss. After a long moment, Chaos stood straight again. Raven stared in shock at the sudden touch. "Sorry," Chaos shook her head with a smirk. "But I don't mean that." -to be continued-
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