A Gruesome Murder [Rena/Titans]

[Deleted]

A beautiful day. Sun shining, hardly a cloud in the sky, and near 60 degrees out, despite the time of year. A bird's song was heard loud and clear in the unseasonal weather. The waves crashed against the shores, as a few tentatives down at the beach were testing the water, from the beauty of the waves, hoping to grab the rare chance to surf at this time of year. It was the picture perfect day of january. Snow on the ground, but warm enough to swim.

The titan's ground was no different. The spray of the larger waves even reaching to the titan tower, basking in all its glory amongst the bright sunlight on its many windows. The windows beaming like a beacon of protection on to the city. The Giant t-shape as if on flame of justice, seemed like it would reach into the deepest caves, and into the skies, for how much hope it gave the villain-plagued city.

However, the glorious symbol of hope, the Giant T hid the carnage that had unfolded in secret the night before.

The door of the T-Tower, big, silver, A gateway to a better way of living, advanced technology, and reinforced metallic doors. But the symbol of hope for the tower was ruined by a dark figure, floating, with strange red mist spilling out from under it. It had a very forboding presence, The head of short-dark hair bowed looking at the ground. On the ground was a pool of thick red water.

But that was no normal villainous figure.

It was a body.

And not just any body, it was the remains of the villainous Rena Caranela, Ex-titan, called Blacklist closer to the end of her life, and one of the greater enemies of the state.

Three swords pinned through the chest, stabbed all the way through to jab into the reinforced metal, no normal human could normally stab through, let alone through the body of the infamous teleporter. Her head bowed with blood dripping down her lifeless chin, her limbs hanging limply with the blood staining almost a continuous line. to the ground. She wore her usual baggy clothes, but instead of the norm, they were soaked in blood.

The bowed head showed shock on the face, wide eye staring at the ground, lifeless, with black orbs sitting in the seas of white. And the pain... The pain was scrutinized on her face. The lips and open mouth stained red with blood that had dripped down onto her chin. Most of it was dry, but from the three swords in her chest, most of her blood spilled onto the ground. Plenty of it was dry, being up there for a few hours, the body was no longer bleeding, losing all it had to give.

The grounds around, told the story of a hefty fight, done out silently. The loser was obvious, but the winner was no where in sight, leaving its opponent, Blacklist, pinned to the door alomst 15 feet in the air.

On Such a beautiful day, was such a gruesome murder, of the Villain Blacklist, and on the door of Hope from the Titan's Tower. Who could have killed Blacklist in such a way, the future-seer being pinned to the door, when barely anyone could lay a finger on her. And what kind of monster would do it in such a way.

A morning jog had been her goal, but it had lasted much longer into the day.

It had been a while since Vanessa had been able to merely jog about the back side of the small island in endless circles, before heading back inside and grabbing something to eat. She had been outside long before the sun had risen, simply getting in some exercise that didn’t result in an attack from any sort of villains. She was wearing shorts, despite the time of year. She had paused at the edge for quite some time, close to half an hour, before finally deciding it was time to head back inside. The headphones perched on her head suddenly cut out as she turned the music player off. She had gone through enough “pump up” songs in the time. She remained still for several more minutes before she walked in a circle around the base of the tower to head inside. She even hummed lightly to herself as she turned a corner, but she stopped mid-phrase.

She froze.

She gaped.

Her face paled, this was not something that she had seen from the other side of the island. She hadn’t even come out through the front door, and had stuck to the back area for her routine. Vanessa’s eyes widened at the hideous sight before her. One small hand flew to her mouth, as if it could stifle the gasp. She shook her head in small motions, quickly. She had never met Blacklist, but despite the stories, she wasn’t able to connect who this was. Instead, here was somebody violently murdered, plastered to the front door. It was the front door of a building that she had seen as secure and perfect. She had first walked in through that door, overwhelmed at the idea of being a Teen Titan. Recently, she had allowed Neseru to enter that door, deciding that she wasn’t out to hurt anybody. She remained motionless for several more minutes, still shaking her head.

Finally, one of her pale hands scrambled for the communicator at her waste. She slowly held it up, removing the hand from her mouth. Her hand shook as she slowly found the strength to push the button in on the side. Hopefully, everybody was up, and hopefully, everybody was nearby. Her voice was strained as she spoke, trying to keep herself from screaming or crying. It broke in several places, and it would be obvious even over bad reception that something was wrong. “G-guys, I-I need you to get out here. In fr-front of the Tower. It-it’s urgent.”

The teenager remained still once more, her communicator still held up to her face. She gradually released the “talk” button, her eyes fixed on Rena’s form. What had happened? She had never seen or even heard of anything like this. Sure, Titans had gone missing in the time she had been a member, but it wasn’t anything like that. This girl seemed so shocked, there was no doubt in Vanessa’s mind that she had been a Super. The pain was written all over both girl’s faces as she continued to stare, her arm slowly falling back to her side. Vanessa sunk to her knees, almost fixated, and began to shake her head again. By this time, she couldn’t hold back any tears, despite having never met Rena. They silently moved down her cheeks as her shoulders shook. She moved one hand to her mouth, biting down on her fingertips to try and restrain the emotion.

No, Vanessa was no stranger to death.

But she had hoped that the boy who fueled her heroism had been the last to die in such a horrific way.

This was certainly not what she had wanted to encounter.

Alaire
Alaire was hanging around on the roof of the Tower. She had two tiny earbuds in her ears and was bobbing along to the music. Her feet were sitting firmly on the floor even though she was sitting on the ledge, if she didn't touch something that was touching the ground she couldn't use her powers. Speaking of which she was toying with a small silver ball of fire in her hand.

She was startled out of her own little world when the sound of her communicator tore through the music. It was Vanessa...and she didn't sound good at all. A'lynn pulled the earbuds from her ears and tried to figure out the quickest way down. She could use wind to lower herself to the ground, no to much like flying, but the stairs would take to long....same with the elevator.

"Time to face your fears," she said to herself before conjuring up a small whirlwind and stepping in it. The whole time she was going down she kept her hand on the side of the building since the building was touching the ground.

When she made it to the bottom she started running towards the front door. When she got there she fell to her knees, covering her face. Blacklist. Was. Pinned. To. The. Door.
A small squeak like noise escaped her throat. Alaire's green eyes filled with tears that she was trying to hold back. Yeah she was a villain but no one deserved to die like that.

The sun was reflecting across the water of the ocean. It was so peaceful in the air and the spirit world was in balance today. There weren't going to be many traumatic deaths that needed to be resolved quickly or dead and destruction would follow. Today was a day to relax and do whatever other work that needed to be done. Which was a lot but that didn't really concern the emerald eyed teenager who was sitting on the rocks with her legs hovering over the water.

It was freezing and she was only in thick jeans and a snow jacket but she was happy.

"Serenity your going to freeze to death." Sorina muttered from the water where she was flying in and out of the water. In life she had loved the water, practically lived in it. Yet now she was in the body of a dove a creature of the air. She would never be able to enjoy the water as she once did.

"I know" The blond muttered smiling at the sky. Sorina saw the subtle glow of maroon light on her friends forehead she cocked her head in question. The blond often explained what she saw or waved away the information as a fluke but this was different. The look of horror slipping across the mediums face was one she hadn't seen before. Not even at the last brush with the end of the world.

It was when the tears started falling that the white bird spoke up, "Serenity...." she started but wasn't sure how to ask the psychic what was going on. How to get her to relay whatever horror that she was living at the moment. It wasn't something that she was going to ask her lightly.

"Who would..." That was all the dove could make out. The rest of what Serenity was saying was too quiet for her to understand.

Then she took off. "SERENITY?!" Sorina huffed in frustration flying after the girl who had gained speed that she hadn't thought possible.

Then she saw it. "Oh my god." She landed on Serenity's shoulder just avoiding the flow of tears falling down the blond's face, both of them were completely silent in the light of the sun.[/size]

Mark
Ricochet shook his head as he stood looking at the Tower. What his parent's were asking him to do was crazy. He was to meet his half-sister Alaire or Charm and manipulate his way into the Team Titans so that he could betray them. The thought didn't bother him, he just wished he had come up with it on his own.

His grey skin (calm, neutral) tingled as he began to run towards the building keeping his speed where he could control it. He didn't want his first impression with his soon-to-be fake teammates to be him running into the wall of their precious tower. He stopped for a rest and to take a look at the picture of the green eyed girl that was his sister. She was, hopefully, his ticket into the team.

He started running again and within a few seconds found himself in a strange situation. His skin turned a flurry of colors due to the shock he was experiencing. Blacklist, a villain he had known of, was hung up on the door of the Tower like some sort of mad poster. Three female Titans were already there. One, his half sister, on her knees crying, one standing there shaking staring at the blank eyed, painstaken face and another crying looking at what was once a great villain. It made his stomach flutter looking at the body. He didn't know what to do. It obviously wasn't a good time to introduce himself so he just allowed himself to change back into his human identity and walked over to Alaire. He placed and hand on her shoulder, half out of fake sympathy, and half out of real concern.

Serenity spun around to face Mark the dead dove on her shoulder going right through her body as the future seeing teenager glared at the newcomer. "Mark why the hell are you here." she growled using the future to find out his name yet she felt like something inside her had snapped. She was no longer the cool collected psychic who would crack jokes and help others through anything.

She was no longer keeping her temper in check or keeping the future as her ally, she was now a grief stricken girl who's close friend now had swords sticking out of her and was hanging on the wall of the tower the snow below drenched in her blood. The day before they had been at her house while the blond struggled through the lessons that Rena had been trying to teach her and now she was here dead.

And Serenity hadn't seen it coming.[/size]

Mark
Mark pulled his hand back from Alaire and put them in the air as in surrender. "I'm here to make peace. Some of you know me as Ricochet, and I understand if you don't trust me but I'm giving up on the villain life." lie, " I came to find my half sister, who just so happens to be Alaire, I'll go into detail on that later, and join the Titans." Ok that was only half a lie... He hoped that the future seer couldn't see him betraying the team in the future, he didn't even know how long it would be til that happened. He just hoped he'd make it through the next few minutes.

Alaire
She felt the touch of someone's hand on her shoulder but was too in shock to even care who it was. Of course with the aid of Serenity's outburst she knew his name was Mark. Right now she didn't want to care who it was she just sat there staring at the ground. This was her time to cry and grieve, she'd worry about Mark later....or not. Her half brother?! She turned and looked at him. Mom had another kid she thought to herself.

Vanessa bit her lip, finally trying to drag her hand across her face to remove the liquid. She slowly shook her head, glancing up as Mark spoke, but not in his direction. She would have mentioned that he probably shouldn't mess with Serenity, but she couldn't bring herself to speak. Her eyes couldn’t even tear themselves away from the sight before her. People died every day, she knew, but this was different. It was rare for a Super to be violently murdered, yet alone be tacked up to the door like some sort of mutilated doll. She shivered as she managed to control herself enough to stop crying, once more trying to rub the tears away from her cheeks. Her face reflected pain, but not nearly as much as the deceased villainess.

“I-I’m sorry. I’ve never met you, Mark, but now may not be the best time.”

She spoke softly. She slid down until she was sitting with her legs bent under her, one hand pressed to her head as if she were dizzy. She was dizzy – the last time she had seen somebody’s body after a bloody demise had been too close in time for the wounds to heal. Her eyes removed themselves from Rena’s body, her face, and landed on the small group who had assembled. Vanessa’s hands shook slightly as she folded her arms over her abdomen, as if trying to contain the shivers. It wasn’t cold out, no, but one could have easily been fooled by her.

Her wide eyes lingered on Serenity for a moment. The other girl was not alright, and that much was very obvious. The loathing of Rena had come from Athena, not Serenity. Her gaze shifted to Alaire, who seemed distraught in a similar way that Vanessa was. Though, Vanessa figured, several of the Titans had encountered Rena. Vanessa had just been lucky enough to not get too wrapped up in the danger, with her lack of fighting abilities. Those were two familiar figures, but what would the others thing? Would Athena be relieved for the death of her archenemy? Or would she too be upset for the loss of a former comrade? And what of Green? Vanessa had heard a slight bit of information about the pair fighting, enough to know that if they continued to fight, they could’ve ended each other. Would his response be similar to Shift's? Or would it be completely different? She had met some former Titan before, Griffin, and known that his opinion of Rena had been much more optimistic than the current leader. Emotions were all over the place.

She pulled her arms even closer to her stomach, shaking her head some more.

“N-now is not a good time to fight…”

Not when such a gruesome reminder of potential fates of the Super was so public.

Serenity glanced back at Vanessa, she needed help but the hate fueled girl was not able to provide at the moment. They needed someone objective. A third party so to speak. But the party was over now, no one was in the mood to celebrate while Rena was there.

Sorina flew off to Vanessa she needed her more, and there was nothing that she could do for her friend now. Serenity was past the point that she could help her. Vanessa needed someone now, she could be that person, no matter what she thought of herself or the situation others needed her and if she could help them then she would put aside her own shock and despair to help others. It was the least she could do.

Sorina could feel herself fading in and out of the physical world as she nestled herself in the crook of Vanessa's neck. It not to comfort her then to comfort herself. She was used to death, even horrible and painful death she dealt with it every day of her existence in the world. But to see someone that she had known with their blood spilling into the pure white snow... It moved even her.

She didn't say anything, she couldn't think of anything that would help the situation. Everything was just a downward spiral from the position where they were looking from. Hope was a distant dream at the moment.

Serenity narrowed her eyes at Mark till they were slits. Here was this person, no creature who called himself human talking calmly while Rena's blood spilled over the snow behind her. This shouldn't have happened. Questions like how why and who could be answered later.

Now she had to deal with the threat.

She clenched her fist by her side ready to strike if she needed to. She wanted to with all her being but now wasn't the right time. He was still a wild card, an unknown integer. "So how come you show up now." she hissed her jaw clenched together so her normally calm and collected voice now had been drenched in rage. The fury had replaced the playful sparkle in her eyes as well revealing the creature within that did not want to be challenged. "A known villain with two parents who just happen to be supervilains as well, just shows up and asks to join the Titans." she growled quietly not really speaking to anyone yet her message quite clear to the others.

She didn't trust him farther then she could throw him.

She had been searching for a connection to a murderer, she had found a suspect. And she didn't quite believe in innocence until proven guilty at the moment.[/size]

Mark
Mark looked at all of the girls, and Vanessa was right this wasn't a good time, but he hadn't come to fight, not yet at least but he didn't even know when the time to fight would come or if he got figured out first. One thing was for sure though, he didn't kill Rena. He looked at her body again, shuddered, then turned back to Serenity.

"I know my past isn't good, or my family tree for that matter, but everyone can change, and I didn't do this to Blacklist, I've never murdered anyone. Even I know that that's going to far." He meant that. Killing was not something he wanted even if he was a villain. Jinx and Carom maybe but not him.

He worded everything carefully and tried to keep his cool as he spoke, "I'll admit, I had all intentions of asking to join the team, but after seeing this I'm just going to wait til things calm down a little and maybe get to know Alaire and spend time with her. Mark stopped to catch his breath and gather his thoughts, " I promise you if I had known about this I wouldn't have come today or even for a week or two." Once again he looked to Alaire then to Vanessa and back to Serenity. " I'm very sorry about this, no one deserves to go that way, whoever did this is one sick son."

What else could he say? He didn't know how to comfort the three girls. Sure he would try with Alaire when he could but right now he was just scared Serenity would send a spirit to carry him away. Standing there looking like a suspicious idiot trying to switch sides on the good and evil field was all he could do right now. The thought of helping Charm up crossed his mind but he didn't know if that would be smart or not so he just continued to stand there trying to convience Serenity that he wasn't the murderer, which no matter how much she believed it was....was not true.