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The Titans: Triptych	By : hentaigoten Category: DC Verse Cartoons - Teen Titans > Crossovers > FemmeSlash Views: 1932 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or JLA. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
Chapter 11 A/N

I first wrote this chapter in February of 2006, when adultfanfiction first went down. I delayed posting because of the confusion surrounding the site, in the months that followed…even though I regard this as the finest chapter of the story thus far.

It’s been five months, and I have not written another word to advance the story, though I have mentally planned the final, apocalyptic act of this story. But by the time I will have posted this, the next chapter will be underway. I only hope that a gap of months will not occur this time round, and I am confident it will work…

But first, before you read on- a word or two about chapter ten. Near the end, you may have noticed certain…oddness…about it. My use of paragraphs and sentences seems to have changed during the writing of it. I suppose you could dub it experimentation. Pushing my usual techniques further than they have been pushed before. I’m not sure if it worked- since I wrote it in January of this year, there have been no comments on it. Hardly surprising, given the size of people who actively participate in Titans stories round these ways…

Chapter 11, however, does not contain these extremes to such a degree…at least, I believe not. It has the second and concluding act of transcending violence. It has psychological postulations. And it has hyper detailed violence.

And now, I shall be silent, and let you read on…and I promise you this- that Chapter 12, Revelations, will provide what I have been waiting months to write and what you, I have little doubt, have been waiting months to read. In several regards, as well…

#11
The Shadow

She looked for patterns.

She’d learnt from the best. The student of the world’s greatest detective. Computer experts. Mystics. Trackers.

She found the first clues.

Houses, owned by ghost companies by ghost companies that led to a tint business whose owners were long dead from natural causes.

She sought out those who would have information. Such information was forthcoming from them after being hung upside down a hundred foot up.

She searched and she searched and she searched.

Fatigue crept over her, but she pushed it aside.

Her mind felt sluggish, but she pushed past it.

She sought the aid of none. She knew all she could. The only one whose aid was received she didn’t ask. She had no need to, and she had no thought to.

The reflex was automatic.

She tried not to think of who lay in the infirmary too much.

Only when she tired did she think of that.

Only when she thought of quitting did she think of who lay there.

And she pushed on, with all the strength of will she had.

The house was in a moderately affluent area. Well built, a decent layout, in the suburbs. Barely ten minutes drive from the heart of the city.

The sale sign had been removed a couple of weeks ago.

A man sat alone inside, deep in thought.

He didn’t have much time.

She moved in on the location.

Her informant had, after some light persuasion, given her the location for a house. He’d said it was a safe house, that maybe some of his former minions were hiding out there. He didn’t know anything else, and she believed him- people tended not to lie when they believed they were about to be dropped to their death in the bay.

It was a nice enough place, she supposed- it lacked in certain fundamental design principles she felt, but such was the way of things here.

She landed on the front lawn, and made her way to the door.

Out of habit, she rung the bell.

A complex system of sensors could be seen as an unnecessary expenditure by some.

Heat sensors, spectral analysis, pheromone samplers, voice pattern recognition, Geiger counters, radiation analysis.

All of it linked to a computer advanced enough to process a million different known patterns in a fraction of a second.

The computer came up with one definitive match, and one probable. Either one warranted a response.

First, an electronic pulse activated a silent warning.

The second electronic pulse triggered the detonation of a hundred pounds of C4 concealed two feet inside the house, just past the front door.

The shockwave erupted first, annihilating the entire front portion of the house. Sending shards of wood and mortar scything out in a lethal arc.

The flame came next- an eruption of explosive energy. Lacking the sheer force of the shockwave, it none the less ignited everything flammable it touched- wood, grass, clothing, paint.

Soon the house was burning, a pillar of flame and smoke, a burnt offering.

Seconds later, she pulled herself half upright. Her clothes singed and burnt. Burns on her skin. Smoke billowed out at her, half blinding her.

Rubble smouldered around her, incinerated by an automatic blast of energy she’d thrown in front of her. It was probably the only reason she was still alive.

A rib grated, broken, bone grinding against bone.

She pushed the pain aside, flung herself inside the still burning house.

It took only moments to scour the place. There was no one inside. It looked as if no one had been for months, or years.

Eventually, she found the entrance to the basement, buried underneath a tonne of rubble. It proved to be little obstacle.

Inside, the explosives had done their work. Carefully planted charges had destroyed all the evidence.

Almost all the evidence.

It took all the processing power available in the tower to recompile what it could from the damaged hard drive. There was an estimation of six hours. It would be pointless to sit at the computer and fret.

Instead, she did something useful. She informed Garfield of her progress, and he reciprocated, informing her of the general status of the city as she went about on her carefully aimed search. Then she trained. She ate.

And then she stood vigil.

Raven was still unconscious. Somewhere in the realms of deeper sleep.

Koriand’r sat beside her until the data was recovered.

The data was encoded, but their computers were good. She managed to get file names within twenty minutes. That gave her a hint of what she needed to do.

Careful examination gave her a better idea.

She left the computers running, in case her hunch turned out to be wrong.

It was a built up area. Crammed with low rent apartment blocks and ill repaired streets.

She swept the sky, scanning the network of buildings below her. The place was a warren of buildings, some in use, some abandoned and uninhabited, many others falling between the two.

She didn’t see the attack, when it came.

A large, heavy calibre bullet impacted into her fibre mesh uniform, sending her tumbling.

She grabbed at the wound. The uniform had absorbed most of the impact velocity, and it hadn’t exited. Good- an exit wound would have ripped open half of her lower back, put her out of the fight, if not cripple her.

Pushing past the pain as she was trained to, she tried to find the shooter.

There.

A figure, running- something in his hands.

She descended.

Nearer, she could see the pattern of orange and black, the silver trimmings…

He turned, threw the rifle straight at her.

She batted it aside, and it exploded beside her.

Hitting the roof in a roll, she came to a stop just in time to see a knee descending towards her face.

The blow smashed into the roof as she rolled aside.

She struck out with her foot, and he leapt off the ground to avoid the blow.

He had no balance, and she seized the opportunity. Throwing herself into him bodily, bearing him to the floor.

Pinning him with one hand, pulling her fist back to slam straight through his face.

Gas billowed out, and she fell back, coughing and choking.

A shape moved in the cloying cloud.

Emerald green bolts of energy stabbed out from her fists, sending debris flying as she backed away from the gas.

Something swung into her vision, slamming into her forehead.

She tumbled backwards, tripping over the edge of the roof.

Trying to fly, she only managed to slow her landing.

Leaping to her feet, she saw a figure descending from the rooftop she had fell from.

Her eyes glowed green.

The energy slammed him back up into the sky, but the cluster of micro-explosives he’d dropped didn’t stop.

Exploding all around, she leapt into the sky, ignoring everything but the rising figure in the sky.

Her hand latched around his neck. Fingers tightening around his throat, digging into his voice box.

“Are you going to leave them to die, Starfire?”

She glared at him, her eyes glowing.

“Do you have enough focus to defeat me, and damn the consequences?”

She looked down. The explosives had wrecked carnage. People were screaming, yelling. There were sirens in the distance.

“Or are you going to finish it? Because I *will* do more next time. I will cripple her. I’ll leave her begging for death.”

With a flick of her wrist, she sent him tumbling into a dilapidated apartment building. Screams rose up from within it.

He was already gone from the point of impact by the time she arrived.

She heard a slight creak of cloth behind her, and turned just in time to make the blade scratch her neck instead of slicing it open.

He moved fast. She ducked and weaved, narrowly avoiding fatal wounds.

She struck out, slamming her foot into his ribs.

Falling to the floor, Slade rolled, through an open doorway.

By the time she had gotten through the door, he’d already made the obvious next step.

“Now, Kori…I do hope you’ll allow me that luxury, we have known each other for so long, after all…you must consider your next move carefully.”

The knife pressed against his hostage’s neck moved imperceptibly.

“You can’t let me sink this knife into this man’s throat. You know I could saw through his jugular in a heartbeat. The arterial spray would coat you in blood, possibly blinding you. I already have an exit plan.”

Her hands curled into fists by her side, out of sheer frustration.

“You could use one of your starbolts, but those things are not accurate. I would be hurt, but I would recover, eventually. I’d probably be incapacitated long enough to be put back in prison, perhaps. But you’d also kill my hostage. And that’s what makes us different, isn’t it?

“This man you’ve never met- you regard his life so highly. Why, I wonder? Is he important? Probably not. He’s not a heart surgeon, not in this neighbourhood. I doubt he will find a cure for cancer. Maybe he has children. Children can survive a lot of trauma, so they’re hardly our concern.”

“You only have contempt and doubt for him.”

“Ah, finally. I was wondering if I was being given the silent treatment…it’s quite interesting to hear the royal accent of another world. Hardly life altering, but interesting. Besides, it’s been, what? Ten months since we last spoke?”

“Something like that.”

“But tell me- if you have such regard for this man’s life, why destroy his home? Why destroy the homes and lives of so many like him?”

“You were the one who dropped those bombs.”

“Yes, I was. But that was because you were in the street. And because I don’t care who else gets hit. But you threw me into this building. There are plenty of places you could have thrown me. But you hurled me into this building because it would hurt me.”

She said nothing, her mind buzzing.

“I have often wondered what drives you. Are they the same drives as motivate humans? I think so. Different, obviously, but not drastically so. You have the same urge to life and the urge to death as we all have. It is my thoughts that they are balanced in you. You lust for life, but your waking hours are spent in preparation for conflict. You were raised as a warrior, expected to follow in the glorious traditions of your people. You had no hesitation in battling your own blood for the throne of your home world. And only today, you have done your best to crush the life from me.

“But you can’t accept it. You long for life, for all the stupid moments, all the profound moments. For the comradeship. For the love of your family you have never had. The love between comrades in arms.”

“You know nothing about me.”

“I beg to differ. How many years have we fought against each other? Even alongside each other, when the situation calls for it. Too many to pretend that we haven’t studied each other, that we don’t know each other.

“As such, I will tell you one thing. Something is out there, trying to get in.”

“Out there?”

“From another dimension, I believe. I’m not fully versed in these matters.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Of course you don’t. You know enough about me to doubt my words. But consider what I say. There is something out there. I do not believe its intentions are noble towards the inhabitants of this plane of existence. I will investigate it regardless, but it I have other matters to attend to.”

“I see.” Koriand’r said, her eyes narrowing.

The beam of energy seared halfway through Slade’s hand before it stopped.

Reeling backwards, he was already transferring his motion into a leap towards the window.

The smell of burnt flesh slowly filled the room.

She pushed aside the hostage, leaping for him.

Reality stretched.

They tumbled into the middle of a meadow.

The air was clean, up here. Free of pollutants and the sound of human life.

Slade swore, getting to his feet. Reality seemed to shift.

“No.”

Koriand’r rose to her feet, hanging a bare foot above the ground.

Energy sliced through Slade’s legs, broiling fat and cooking muscle.

He hit the ground with a grunt, his concentration broken.

“No more.”

She stalked over to him, as he rolled over onto his back.

“You think I’ll let you threaten her? Let you kill again?”

Her eyes burned bright.

“Second time lucky.”

Reality blurred, twisted.

A figure hung in mid air, swathed in bandages, a medical gown shifting in the breeze.

“Don’t.”

“Raven? Your awake…?”

“You’d only regret it.”

She sagged, and that was all the time it took.

In a half second, the ground had risen up and swallowed him whole.

“How-?”

“Huh. He can do that, can he?”

“What did he do?”

“Tapped into the earth, used it to escape. He’ll have to give her something in return. I’m sure he’ll find something.”

“What?”

“Magic costs. Payment is…complicated. It would take several years to explain to any satisfactory degree.”

The two hung in mid air, silently.

“How did you know-?”

“You were here?”

“That, too.”

“I could hear your thoughts.”

“I thought you couldn’t do that.”

“Normally, I can’t. But…” Raven paused, and didn’t continue.

After a while, Korinad’r spoke. “…thank you.”

“I did what you would do. And…I needed to talk with you. I knew it the instant I woke up.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…it’s time I was honest with you, Kori.”
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The Titans: Triptych