A Burrning Suspicion (Open)

Serenity glanced up at the sky, it was snowing.

Great. Just great.

She was at least dressed appropriately, her coat kept her mildly warm in the cold air around her. She had just barely remembered it as she ran out of the tower. That and to put on her shoes just as she left. The mood she was in now it was doubtful that she would even notice if she was getting frostbite.

She felt the snow underneath her feet crunch wishing that was the heads of those at the hive. She hadn't stayed for all the deliberating about who might have been responsible for the burring notice. She wished that they knew she was coming to get them. Then she would have a clear sight.

They were hiding behind indecision and riddles for now. Certain Titans would no longer be the only ones wishing that Rena wasn't dead. She had already conned a great number of spirits into action.

How she did it she wasn't going to tell Athena. Most were evil spirits who stayed in this realm for malicious purposes. The fact that she had gone to the lengths of threatening the spirits of the world into doing as she said was confirmation enough that she was not herself.

She found herself looking at the front door of the Hive headquarters. The titans would be behind her soon. After they finished arguing or whatever it was that they were doing at the moment. She wasn't going to wait for them. If they were going to take this long she would just go ahead and start the party herself.

She stepped over the threshold as she saw a white flash from behind her. The dove was still keeping her distance.

Figured.[/size]

"Get up. Now. It's important."

No response.

"Are you seriously that good for nothing?"

The former Titan had been strewn about the couch, taking a nap. He was snoring lightly as the girl stormed over to him. She nudged him in the side, quite hard given her size. Her eyes practically burned holes in his skull as she folded her arms and spoke to him. She watched as his eyes slowly opened, as he murmured something before taking his time to sit up. He groggily glanced at her, his head tilted to one side. Vanessa was not happy, and it was very obvious from the look on her face that he shouldn't just be ignoring her. She didn't wait for him to ask questions before she snapped at him again. "She's gone. Serenity. She didn't say where she was going, and now I can't find her anywhere. We are going to look for her, before she gets herself killed."

There was a razor edge in the way Vanessa spoke that was different than normal.

It was even in the way that she stood, ready to lunge.

Griffin didn't talk back. He quickly found his yellow and black shoes, pulling them on. He'd been wearing the silly uniform for a while, only changing when he had to wash it or anything. After all, with the rate that things were happening, he needed to be ready. He pulled the goggles on his head as shrugged into his black woolen pea-coat. He gestured for Vanessa to get her shoes on, also, but was surprised to find she was ready to go. Her uniform in winter mode, complete with thick, woolen leggings. She was very prepared, he noticed. Or very, very upset.

They were silent the entire way over. Griffin had driven, parking a few blocks away from where the HIVE used to situate itself. It was the only place he could think of, especially after he brought it up in front of Serenity. Vanessa seemed perfectly content with this explanation, but it was the only thing she was fine with. His driving was too slow. They were sticking to too many main roads. They needed to park further away so the car wouldn't be noticed. It seemed like the former Titan could do nothing right for the current Titan, but he had grit his teeth and gone with it. He didn't know about Vanessa's fighting skills, but she didn't seem like somebody he ought to be angering at the moment.

Vanessa was the first to spot Serenity.

Griffin hung in the background more as the heroine slid over, wincing as her voice reached him, cold.

She was certainly very upset at her friend's temporary disappearance.

"You honestly left to go out here alone?"

"Yes."

Serenity pulled a knife out of her pocket and jammed it in the keyhole as she pried the door open. "I was." she said her voice laced with the warning that her eyes shone with.

She had been acting strange since she had seen Rena's body hanging spread eagle on the front door of the tower, her sanity had drained out of her as the blood had flown out of her friends wounds. Nothing mattered much anymore. Nothing except the blood of the murder. They must go down. She wanted to be the one to do it. "So would you Griffin and that dove please either help or stay out of my way?" Her voice showing so little emotion it scared the dove.

She was not normally a vengeful person.

She glanced over her shoulder.

Far from it usually. She was not a big fan of killing.

She let the knife slide into it's sheath.

Although now was the time to rip heads off.

And enjoy doing it. "Are you coming?"[/size]

Nessa folded her arms. She glared, her jaw set. She watched as her friend broke into the door, obviously unphased by the entire thought of going in without anybody around her. She glanced at Griffin for support, but he simply tossed his hands up in a way that showed he didn't know what to do. She snorted slightly before her eyes settled once more on Serenity, half-narrowed with anger and something else. Betrayal? "I'm not going to stand here while you get yourself killed. Going alone after whoever it is certainly isn't the good decision." A small frown situated itself on her face as she paused. Her eyes took on that steely look again, her brow creased in determination. "But I'm not going to watch you attempt to slaughter people."

Griffin wanted to say something, he honestly did, but he suddenly felt out of place. Serenity was angry. Vanessa was angry. He was just thankful that neither had ripped his head off yet. He remembered Jazz Ann's reaction to the note. She had been terrified, a mess. As much as he agreed with the brunette standing in front of him, he couldn't say it. He stepped up, placing a hand on Nessa's shoulder. "I want to help you. We need to keep them safe. But rushing in without thinking is not a strategy that will accomplish anything." He glanced down at her, catching her eye. The girl scowled in return, but backed down a bit. Her arms fell to her sides, and her head tilted in one direction.

He knew he had won that small battle.

All that needed to happen was for Serenity to calm down.

He grimaced. Calm down? Honestly? She was so tightly wound and angry that he actually found himself afraid of her. He was taller, probably stronger, and knew his way at least a little around a fight. Still, it was unnerving. She wasn't acting like herself, and neither was Vanessa, he guessed. He was thankful that he was the only one with a set of keys, and that if anything happened, he was a legal adult and able to make decisions. He shook his head slightly, scowling. It was crazy, nothing at all like he had recalled the last time somebody important had died in front of the Titans. Were things that different? Or was it all in his head? He didn't like all of this psychoanalysis, it was practically painful. "We're coming. We aren't leaving you." He had decided for the pair, whether Nessa wanted to or not.

Sorina watched at Serenity turned back to look at the three others, Griffin was holding Vanessa back. The dove was glad she was or else the two girls would probably be at each other's throats. Neither of them were acting like themselves. The sweet and innocent Vanessa looked half crazed, and the sarcastic, know it all Serenity was no longer the same girl.

She knew the signs and if she wasn't certain she couldn't sense a demon taking over her friend she would have sworn that the blond standing in front of them wasn't the same one that she had seen grow up. This was a different soul.

This one had seen pain and suffering and was not adverse to gving it to unto others. She was only parctially whole, and there was nothing keeping face lit. No tokens of love that her new friends had given to her.

The necklace with the ever burning flame no longe adorned her neckline. The psychic would not allow it to see what she had become. What she planned on doing. She would not let it see the person she had become. Who she was slowly becoming.

"Well hurry up then." she said her eyebrow raised. The dove saw the small twinkle in the blond's eye return for a moment. Only a moment then it was gone. But she was there. Still there. She hadn't left completly.

"Sorina stop it with the disaproving look and do something," the emotionless tone was back now. The dove felt the seed of hope lessen slightly but did as she was told. There was nothing else she could do.[/size]

[Deleted]

Inside the door was an eery atmosphere. Stillness. No alarms were set off, nothing of anything seemed to happen, until the door fully opened, as the lights of the entry-way blared on, suddenly from dark to bright, was a large change, and if they were caught in the flare, would probably be temporarily blinded.

As soon as one could see again, a frightening sight was to be held. A rope hung straight from the ceiling. Good sturdy silken rope. Strong, hard to break, and not even the large man hanging from it could have broken it with his weight. But it seemed, the rope itself had broken something of his. The rope itself had been tied in a noose, and the hang-man to it, was dead, but not by a broken neck. But by, it seemed, something else. He had struggled, that much was obvious from the large rope burns on his neck. He had probably been strangle by the rope, rather than the instant death of his neck snapping. The eyes were filled with fear, pain, and shock.

Further down the halls, there were other bodies, and if one bothered to examine them, they were dead since about the time that Rena had been found dead. There were maybe about 10 of them, all lined up, making a gruesome path to the far wall, where, in blood, now dried, was inscribed a message.

"The future is clouded
The plant's master is Lost
The dead one is flustered
And the Green one is joyous.
How funny...

A bit of a turmoil, but Congratulations, Serenity, assuming you're here, as I left the note in your room. Here's your second hint. Be mindful, now, wouldn't want you dying. The Goddess of War is, that should be enough, right? Oh, and since I can, Nice speeches at the Funeral, everyone, it ALMOST made me regret killing Blacklist. Almost"

Serenity felt the smell hit her as she turned to the room, "Damn it." she hadn't seen it coming. The bodies of other victims were strewn across the room in disarray. A cluster of souls who's dreams had been crushed before they could truly realize what they were. Now all that was left was their broken bodies. The empty husk of what should have been a bright future.

She should have seen it coming.

A mass murder like this... this person thing needed to be stopped. Now. This couldn't go on. The bodies could have been from any of the titans. They looked about the same age as most of the occupants of the tower. Whoever was behind this was taunting them. He, she, whatever it was they were throwing what they were feeling back in their faces.

They had had futures, hopes and dreams. Fears, and loves. Strengths, and weaknesses. Just like all of the titans themselves. This was preventable. They could still be alive.

If only she could see.

She felt herself walking through the room over to the riddle itself. The room stank of death and decay, but she kept going. She needed to see the note herself. Her visions of it weren't enough this time. And it spoke to her directly, dangled the truth in front of her very nose.

"Goddess of war?" she asked under her breath and glared angrily at the other victims. Of course no one had heard about them. With all the commotion with a dead supervillain no one had considered the fact that this was a mass murder. This wasn't fair. "Damnit." she growled punching the wall with all her strength behind the attack. Then she heard a quiet cracking noise. Now she had a broken hand.

"It doesn't make sense." she growled irritably. There was no motive other then the fun of it, the means was obvious and whoever did this certainly had the opportunity to kill all of these teens. But why? Why antagonize certain titans? Hell Serenity herself wasn't even a titan.

"Why can't I see anything?!" she growled glancing at the faces of the others.

She was blind.

She hated it.[/size]

The smell was, to put it nicely, horrendous.

He nearly gagged as Serenity pried open the door and found the bodies. At first, it was just a clogging wave of nausea that came over him. "Holy shit," he muttered, placing a hand over the bottom portion of his face. It was only when he spotted the hangman and the other victims that the stench made sense, and his hand fell to his side. A face to the smell. This was almost too much for the remarkably calm hero to think about. He gaped, then gasped, then shook his head feverishly. He had seen things that were probably more graphic, but never this many all together. Not in one place, at least, not by a being's doing. Earthquakes? Yes. Hurricanes? He'd even seen his share of those victims. "No, no, no. This cannot be happening."

He lingered near the hanging body, working to keep his disgust choked down. This was sick. Whoever had done this was, well, a piece of work. "Sick," he spoke out loud. He could've been anywhere, anyone, talking about anything. A teenager upon discovering a moldy sandwich in their locker. A little kid peering at a spider. Still, it was the only word he could find to describe the scene. He shook his head slowly, peering up at the man. He remained silent for a while, before taking up some more of that Griffin-brand logic. "It isn't safe here. We can't stay here for very long. And-and... We have to tell the others. Even Shift. We can't let the others be left out."

And all Vanessa could do was stare.

Her shoulder shook slightly. It was like stumbling on the worst possible surprise. She bit her lip, silently making her way across the room. She slowly reached a hand out, as if to touch the wall, but something stopped her. Her brow creased. "It's definitely blood. I'd know that smell anywhere. No matter what else I can smell." She wasn't going to go into any more details, and deeply regretted her abilities for a moment. Perhaps if it had been gelatin on the wall, and the people were merely asleep, she would have been okay. Her hand remained in the air, trembling, before she slowly nodded. It was a good idea to tell the others, but it would probably have been a better idea to go back, also.

"Goddess of War?" she asked, her brow creased and head tilted. She racked her mind. Who were any goddesses of war? She would have guessed a place, but the phrasing seemed too odd for that. "What does that mean?"

Griffin, too, was thinking.

"The Greek goddess of wisdom is also the goddess of war." He halted abruptly in his speaking, eyes growing wide.

"Shift is the next victim."

ooc;; Oh man. If I'm right, I'll feel like a freakin' genius. The only reason I remotely know that is from the Percy Jackson series... ^__^;

Serenity nodded, that made sense most people who had paid attention in school should know that though. This person must have wanted to point something out. "Yes but how and when? Why would that creature be after Athena?" She asked irritably holding her now broken hand to her chest.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Ouch!

She needed to stop moving her hand. That would just end badly. There were only two spirits left here now. One was a fifteen year old cheerleader, the other was in a gamer. Sorina was already talking to them. Neither had known each other. And neither knew what happened.

The other nine were causing havoc in the city. Most of the other spirits had stopped them from doing anything rash. She wished she had found this place sooner. Why hadn't she.... Something was wrong when she glanced into the future now it was like looking into muddy water. When she looked hard enough she could see something but it wasn't always what she wanted to see.

"Wait...." she muttered looking back at the riddle itself rather than the taunting hint that she was fuming about. "The wording changed..." she muttered crouching down to look at it closer. No matter how much the smell made her want to rampage down the streets until there was nothing left to destroy she needed to figure this out for the sake of the spirits here, for Rena.

"Why say the future is clouded, then go into descriptions of feelings." her eyes widened. Whoever it was was causing her visions to end in dead ends. He was the reason she was missing things.

Sorina flew over her shoulder to see what she was talking about, "This guy was for sure at the funeral and knows your moves. And yet didn't mention you directly in the riddle." she said knowing that Serenity wouldn't say it out loud to avoid being self centered. Her life revolved around others. She herself was not as important as them.

"How funny...." Serenity growled under her breath. Taunting, they were being taunted by this thing whoever it was. People were dieing and they were still trying to find who might have done it...[/size]