"You're afraid of me..."

"No. I'm afraid of you finding out the truth."

"They're not ready," the first man said, resigned and shaking his head at the monitors in his dim, tiny control room. "The fifth team isn't good enough. We should be waiting for team six."

The second man didn't even spare the first a glance. "We've waited long enough," he said, his voice gruff. "We've wasted too much time, too much money, and this project is only the most minor of what we have cooking."

"That's why it's so important to hold off!" The first man insisted. "This is the foundation for so much of what The Project is trying to accomplish! If we can't get this right, then we'll never finish with the Ulti -"

A red light began blinking on the console in front of the pair. "What's that?" The second man asked.

"Something's wrong with Number Three," the first man said, leaning forward to peer at the displays, typing a few commands into his computers. "He's not waking up." He shook his head again. "This is what I'm talking about, General. Problems like this can spiral out of control. Chaos theory." The red light stopped blinking. "There he goes..."

The second man grunted. "See? No problem."

"Sir, I still don't think -"

"What do you suggest, Doctor?" the military man asked. "You know what team five's mission is. Do you want to wait? What if we wait too long? There won't be any team six. There won't be any Project. There won't be anything."

The first man sighed. "The director won't be happy."

"Waller is never 'happy'," the general said dismissively, waving away the comment. "Worst case scenario, we get valuable field data. Best case, we get field data and kill the target."

The target. Such a clinical name. But the first man was a man of science. He understood the need to take emotion out of equations such a these, the need to think about the results in abstracts and not terms like "girl", or "superhero". That didn't mean he didn't know exactly what the general meant when he said "target".

With another glance at his monitors and a shiver, the first man nodded. He wished the fifth team the best in their mission:

To kill a sixteen-year-old named Raven.

"You already had an entire disgusting all-meat pizza all to yourself, why should I give you a slice of mine?" Beast Boy protested, holding the pan of steaming pizza at arms-length to protect his food from his friend Cyborg.

Unfortunately for the green-haired and green-skinned changeling, the half-robot had over a foot of height over him and the associated reach to go with it. Beast Boy grimaced, and his own limbs lengthened, taking on the aspect of some kind of chimpanzee or other simian to move the pie further away. "Come on, BB," Cyborg pleaded, "You're just a little guy, you don't need to eat that whole thing."

Beast Boy was unmoved. "Dude, I'm still a growing boy, I need to eat the whole thing way more than you do. Besides, you don't even like non-dairy cheese pizza!"

"Does it still have sauce and crust?" Cyborg asked. Beast Boy nodded glumly. "Then I still want it."

Another voice interrupted the two Teen Titans. "Friends, either of you are welcome to some of my pizza," Starfire said brightly. All four of the other figures sitting around the table glanced down at the alien girl's entrée, which was, unsurprisingly, covered in mustard, a condiment the red-headed extraterrestrial had grown quite fond of... perhaps too fond.

Cyborg raised a hand to ward off the offering of mustard-covered pizza, looking nearly as green as his younger friend. "No thanks, Starfire."

"Here, Cyborg," Robin said from beside Starfire, pushing a tray towards his second-in-command that had two glorious slices on it. "I think I can spare this much."

Cyborg turned his attention away from the shape-shifter, eager to claim this gift. "Aw, yeah!" He exclaimed, a broad smile splitting his dark face. Beast Boy sighed in relief and began eating his own pizza as quickly as he could before the bionic Titan could steal any.

Looking on, Raven couldn't help but feel it was all so... normal. As normal as any scene could be where five costumed, teenage superheroes, only one of whom had no powers, sat around an outside table at their favorite pizza place on a clear September afternoon. A shape-shifting boy, an alien girl, a half-machine, a half-demon, and the sidekick of one of the world's greatest heroes... and yet they had become almost a family. A family for those who had none.

Or didn't want the ones they had.

Raven sighed internally. She had almost been in a good mood, although one wouldn't know it to look at her impassive face. It was a peaceful day, she was out with her friends, and there was no storms on the horizon, literally or figuratively. Sure, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Starfire were testing her patience in various ways, as they did everyday, but that wasn't unusual. It was, in fact, often the reason she would agree to go out on these little excursions: It was a good way for her to test her self-control.

But thoughts about family – as momentarily pleasant as they could be – always soured her mood. Her family... her real family, was something Raven didn't like thinking about. Her mother, Arella, was a woman who had been seduced by an evil cult. And her father... her father was Trigon, the demon who raped Arella, all for the purposes of bringing forth a mortal child who would help him conquer the world.

Raven was that child.

Destined to help bring about her father's dark reign. Destined to destroy the world she had grown to enjoy and the friends she had grown to love. She closed her violet eyes.

"The gem was born of evil's fire. The gem shall be his portal."

No! she thought. We defeated my father... my destiny is my own now.

"Raven?" Robin's gentle inquiry brought the dark-haired girl out of her reverie. She shifted her gaze to the masked hero. Even through the opaque lenses of his mask, Raven could see the concern in his eyes. "You okay?"

Raven shook her head. "It's nothing." But of course it wasn't "nothing". And Robin knew that. It was just his way of letting her know she wasn't alone. She appreciated it more than she had ever said, but she still never took advantage of the implicit offer to confide in him. The others had their own pain, their own problems, and their own joys as well. No need to darken everyone else's day with her own drama.

The Titans' leader nodded his understanding – both of what she had and had not said – and turned his dark-haired head back to watch Cyborg happily scarf down the remainder of Beast Boy's pizza. The young shape-shifter had only been able to eat half of it before giving up, and Raven wondered why he had even bothered protecting it so fervently. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Robin take Starfire's hand under the table and squeeze. The Tamaranean smiled and leaned into him. The two had been growing increasingly close since the Titans had returned from Tokyo, only a month ago now.

They're happy, Raven thought. I should be, too. But thoughts of her father had darkened her mood. She marveled the other Titans could live every day so relatively care free. All of them had suffered terrible losses. Cyborg had had most of his physical body destroyed in a car crash*, replaced by cybernetics. Starfire had lost both parents and had a younger brother missing somewhere out in the galaxy, not to speak of the sister that had tried to kill her multiple times. Beast Boy, appearances to the contrary, had suffered as much as anyone, having almost died of a rare tropical disease and then losing his parents in a flood shortly thereafter. And then there was Robin, who had lost his entire family one terrible night in a tragic accident.

But they had all bounced back. Instead of sliding into darkness and melancholy, they had come together and formed a new family, created new bonds to replace those that had been lost. And they had accomplished so much good since then.

"You know, I could've taken the rest of that home, Cy," Beast Boy complained.

Raven leaned forward, interjecting herself into the argument. "Like all the other food you bring back and leave untouched in the fridge for three months until I have to throw it away myself?"

The young changeling had the gall to act offended. "You did that? I was saving it for later!"

"I'll apologize if you can tell me what 'it' was."

"Uh... lemme see..." Beast Boy considered for a moment before slumping his shoulders in surrender. "Okay, you win."

Raven glared at him. "No, I'm serious. What was it?"

"It was... very colorful," Starfire supplied.

Cyborg shook his head, popping the last piece of pizza into his mouth. "I guarantee you it didn't start out that color."

"And it definitely didn't start out with all the fuzz on it," Robin finished. He pointed at Beast Boy. "Raven shouldn't have had to clean up after your mess."

The shape-shifter's hands raised in protest. "It's not like I asked her to," he said.

Violet eyes glowered at him. "You didn't have to. If that whatever-it-was had stayed in the fridge any longer, my life would have been in danger." Beast Boy looked like he was about to give in, so Raven opened her mouth to deliver the coup de grâce when a shiver of premonition ran through her.

Without warning, a long-handled spear crashed through the table Titans had been sitting at, sending half-eaten pizza and nearly-empty soft-drinks flying in all directions. The spear stood there, quivering from the force of the throw that had delivered it, and the five Titans stared at it in shock. A shadow appeared over the table and they looked up to find the figure of a large man silhouetted against the bright blue sky as he leapt towards them.

Instantly, Robin was in leader mode. "Titans, scatter!" All five teens leapt back, clearing the area in an instant.

Just in time. The man landed next to the weapon, destroying the remainder of the table. Other patrons, reacting less swiftly than the Teen Titans, began screaming and running away. The man paid them no attention. He pulled the spear out from the floor of the seating area and brandished it. He was huge, taller than Cyborg if not quite as broad, dressed in black pants, a red shirt, and a sable jacket of a vaguely military cut. His eyes were an icy, glacial blue, but his most striking feature, even more than his size, was his close-cropped white hair. Not silver, not gray, but white.

Before anyone could say anything, two more figures leapt down next to the first. One was a female with hair down to her waist and a curved sword with an elaborate hilt hanging from her waist. The other was another male, this one about as tall as Starfire, shaggy-haired and pulling a sword from the sheath on his back. All three wore the same uniform, and all three had the same cold eyes and white hair.

"Uh... who are these guys supposed to be?" Beast Boy asked, crouching at the outer edge of the circle the Titans had instinctively formed, his voice cracking slightly with nervousness.

Cyborg raised an arm, shifting it into its sonic cannon form. "Don't know, but they ruined lunch. They're asking for a butt-kicking."

Surprisingly, it was the female – the smallest of the three - who stepped forward to address the superheroes. "We are Weapon," she said, her voice calm and clear. "We are here for the one called Raven." She paused for a moment. "We will allow the rest of you an opportunity to leave now... I suggest you take it." Her eyes sought the teenage sorceress where she floated, hood drawn up, dark power gathered at her fingertips. Raven stared back, surprised at the hatred in those icy eyes, but meeting it with her own cold gaze.

Robin produced his staff and extended with a flourish, settling into a fighter's stance. "What do you want with Raven?" he asked defensively.

The shorter of the two males rolled his eyes. "Too much talking already. Let's just take 'em all out."

Raven made a mental note of how the female's lip twitched at her companion's outburst. Any conflict in "Weapon's" team was something that could be taken advantage of. Nonetheless, the white-haired girl inclined her head slightly in agreement.

"Fine," she said, and the trio exploded into action, darting forward so quickly they almost seemed to disappear from one spot and appear in another.

"Titans, go!" Robin shouted. He raised his staff just in time to intercept a lightning-fast drawing slice from the female Weapon's saber. The two combatants were a blur of motion, weapons clanging together in a metal cacophony.

Starfire swooped towards the spear-wielder, hands and eyes glowing with the green energy of her starbolts. "You will not harm my friend," she cried. The big man dodged, faster than he looked, and spun the haft of his weapon into the alien's midsection, using his leverage to toss the Tamaranean into the wall of a nearby building. The alien girl crashed through the building with a yelp.

Meanwhile, the third Weapon was sprinting towards Raven, sword held in one hand, weaving and dodging an evasive course as Cyborg fired blast after blast from his sonic cannon, sending pavement and pieces of tables and chairs flying in all directions. "Any idea why they're after you, Rae?" Cyborg asked, throwing the question over his shoulder.

"Not a clue," Raven answered. "Maybe we should ask them nicely." With a wave of her hand, she sent some of the bigger pieces of debris flying towards her assailant. Without skipping a step, the young man whirled in mid-air, his sword flashing, neatly dividing the broken tables and sending them clattering away. He landed with a feral grin on his face.

He waved a finger at the dark-cloaked girl. "Gotta' do better than that," he sneered. His victory was short-lived, however, as Beast Boy, in the form of a ram, charged the Weapon, catching him in the stomach and sending him skidding across the ground.

The green changeling morphed back into human form. "Is that good enough?" he asked cockily, before transforming into a gorilla and spinning to grapple with the big lance wielder.

Raven reached out with her mind, sensing the network of pipes and cables under the ground, providing power and water to all the surrounding buildings. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" she cried, gesturing. The pipes and wires burst from the ground and entangled the largest Weapon. Only for a moment, however, as the female disengaged from Robin long enough to cut her associate's bonds with a double flick of her sword.

Not good, Raven thought. They're working as a unit. She knew from experience that two fighters working together were more than twice as dangerous as two opponents working separately. It was a good percentage of the Titans' own strength.

Only one of the mysterious fighters didn't seem to have gotten the message. Across the way, she noted that Cyborg had managed to grab hold of the third Weapon. Well he's out of the fight, she commented to herself wryly.

Cyborg seemed to agree. "Give it up, man, no human can get out of the 'Full Cyborg' hold!"

The Weapon grinned. "Oh, really? Well then you better hold on real tight." He strained against the metal limbs that held him, and, shockingly, Cyborg's arms began to pry apart. The bionic Titan wasn't using his full power – or else he would have crushed the young man – but the Weapon's strength caught him by surprise just enough that the white-haired youth was able to spring free.

Striking like a snake, the Weapon swung the sword he still held in one hand at the half-man, half-machine. Cyborg raised a titanium limb, catching the flat of the sword on the gleaming forearm with a clang. Wrenched from the would-be assassin's grip, the sword spun out of his hand and stuck into the ground twenty feet away. The young man leapt back, disarmed.

"I gotta' admit... you caught me by surprise, kid," Cyborg said, "but unless you're strong enough to punch through steel, you might want to reconsider what you're doing."

The white-haired young man chuckled and raised his hands into a fighting posture. His fists flexed behind the armored padding that covered his knuckles. "Let's find out," he said, and charged.

Robin leapt above a low slash, riposting with one end of the metal staff he wielded with expert skill. The strike was blocked easily by the young woman facing him. She's a real fighter, Robin thought, impressed in spite of himself. He hadn't been able to break away long enough to assist the Titans in battling the other Weapons, but he knew just from his combat sense that the white-haired girl was the most dangerous of the three. The bigger male was the strongest, but his size kept him from being as mobile as he needed to be in this kind of situation, making him just slow enough to catch a trio of starbolts on his exposed flank. As for the smaller male...

He was different.

The other Weapons were cold, almost mechanical in their precision and prowess, barely talking. Robin hadn't even heard the big one make a single noise. The other young man, though, kept stopping to taunt and challenge. And laugh. He was laughing as he fought.

Robin shook his head mentally. It was good for the young Weapon that he was enjoying himself, because the lead Titan knew instinctively he would be the one that went down first. But would it be enough? He watched the spear-wielder rise and aim a thrust at Raven, who blocked the strike that would have skewered her with a wall of black magical energy before countering with a telekinetically thrown mailbox.

That was the real problem.

The former side-kick of the legendary Batman was confident in his team, but Weapon was playing for keeps. They hadn't said as much, but they were here to kill Raven.

Kill her.

And all it would take was one moment of distraction. One lucky shot. One inch of miscalculation. Robin wondered who had sent the trio... This didn't seem like Trigon's work. The HIVE? There was a certain similarity to another evil trio the Titans had battled in the past, but no. The Brotherhood of Evil, maybe. That group was constantly adding new threats to their roster. But why go after Raven specifically?

The female Weapon attacked with a sudden flurry of slashes and kicks, and all time for quiet consideration was gone. Robin was forced back, foot by foot as the girl pressed her advantage. She was stronger and faster than any normal human in addition to her impressive combat prowess. One slash bifurcated the collapsible bo-stave and Robin dropped it, producing two special birdarangs from his utility belt and locking them together at the "wing". He pressed a button on the combined implement and a blade extended from the makeshift handle, forming a sword.

For the first time, the female Weapon smiled, her eyes lighting up at the sight of the blade Robin now held. "Oh, very good," she said quietly. The white-haired young woman stepped forward and slashed at the lead Titan, who caught the attack on his own blade, locking the two together.

"Why are you doing this?" Robin ground out between grit teeth, straining to hold the stronger fighter back. But the brief glimpse of humanity was gone, and the Weapon girl's face was impassive once again. He was giving way before the unyielding pressure of his opponent's blade, sliding backwards along the ground, edging towards the wall where his options for countering or dodging would be limited.

The Weapon's hair suddenly seemed to be haloed in green light and Robin gave her a hard smile. "Robin!" Starfire cried, and the sword-wielding young woman's face contorted in surprise and pain as emerald energy engulfed her. She spun away from the attack and Robin had breathing space again.

"Thanks, Star," he said feelingly, looking at the alien girl for a lingering moment, watching as the wicked glow faded from her eyes.

She stared back at him, a small smile lingering at the corners of her own lips. "Are you uninjured?"

Robin waved off her concern. "I'm okay, but..." He raised his voice. "Regroup Titans!"

Her eyes glowing, Raven gestured, sending the smaller of the two Weapon males flying into the larger one. She had just pulled the young man off of Cyborg. It turned out the Weapon couldn't punch through steel, but the fact he was still standing was testament to his skill. He had evaded Cyborg's attacks, which would have taken him out of commission for sure, while delivering a few stinging blows of his own. That in itself was disturbing enough, but what made it worse was that he seemed to be having so much fun.

Something about the young man's attitude resonated deep within Raven, in the demon part of her psyche. It was bloodlust. It was the thrill of the chase, the adrenaline of the fight, the exhilaration of combat.

She hated it.

"Regroup, Titans!" Robin shouted from near the ruined entrance to the restaurant. Raven felt a moment of guilt at the damage the fight had already caused, but there was a special fund kept for just these situations to clean up collateral damage. Still, she pitied the owners, who were guilty of nothing but allowing Jump City's resident superhero team to patronize their establishment. This was their reward.

Cyborg sent a few blasts from his sonic cannon, giving the other Titans covering fire as they gathered around their leader. Raven herself used her powers to teleport the twenty feet to the others' side. She noted with a twinge of concern that they were all breathing hard. The Weapons were pushing them to their limit.

Robin threw a series of gas balls and explosive devices, adding to the confusion wrought by Cyborg's arm cannon and giving them a little more time. "What's the plan, boss man?" Cyborg asked, sonic still at the ready, aiming through the smoke.

"These guys are more dangerous than we thought," Robin admitted. "We've been on the defensive this whole time, but we're about to change that." He hesitated, then turned to his dark-cloaked teammate. "But first... I'm sending you back to the tower, Raven."

The sorceress narrowed her eyes. "No," she said flatly, without hesitation.

"They're after you," the boy wonder insisted. "All they have to do is get in one lucky shot and you'll be dead, and in the meantime, we're reacting to what they're doing instead of the other way around." The tempo of his words increased. "We're running out of time. I'm not putting this up for a vote, I'm ordering you back to Titans' Tower."

Raven pursed her lips, her cloak closing in tighter around her. It was unthinkable. Running away while her friends were in danger? She remembered how it felt when they were trying to protect her from Slade, who had been commanding Trigon's fire demons in an attempt to reach her, to make her fulfill her destiny. She remembered how helpless she had felt as they gave everything they had and more to save her.

She felt a hand on her arm and almost flinched away. "He is right, Raven," Starfire said softly. "With you here, we are all in danger, you most of all." Raven's amethyst eyes looked around the small circle of her friends. Robin was determined, Starfire worried. Beast Boy and Cyborg gave her supportive nods. She looked across to Robin again and inclined her head in acknowledgment.

"Call me if you need me," she demanded. "I can take care of myself, believe it or not."

A faint smile appeared on Robin's face. "Believe me, I know you can," he said, and turned away. "I'm counting on it," he continued, quieter.

Raven was about to ask what he meant, but was interrupted by Beast Boy. "Here they come!" The smoke was clearing and the Weapons stood ready, waiting them out. As one, they brandished their weapons and charged.

"Teen Titans, go!" Robin yelled, raising his birdarang sword and leading the counter-charge.

The battle was joined, harsh cries and the clash of weapons echoing through the street. Raven hesitated, the feeling of wrongness strong in her. She shouldn't abandon her friends at a time like this. "What are you waiting for?" Robin shouted, grunting as he fended off the female Weapon's sword. "Get out of here!"

"Oh no you don't!" came the answering voice. The smaller male leapt out of the melee, twirling his recovered blade in one hand and darting towards Raven. Beast Boy moved to intercept him, shifting into a velociraptor. The Weapon didn't hesitate. He reached out with one hand and grabbed the changeling by the saurian throat, lifting him up and slamming him into the pavement. "Not this time, Green!" he hissed.

Raven reacted without thinking. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" A nearby car was encompassed by dark energy and flew through the air to slam into the Weapon, sending him tumbling head over heels towards the teenage sorceress, collapsing in a heap nearby.

"Go, go!" Cyborg shouted. Raven grit her teeth, but the insane attack of the young man lying crumpled at her feet was proof enough that Robin had been right. With a last, pained glance at the battlefield, she opened her soul-self, creating a portal back to Titans' Tower, the T-shaped building the Teen Titans used as base of operations. Just before the portal closed, she felt a tug at the hem of her cloak and saw that the sword-wielding Weapon had reached up, disoriented and barely conscious, to take hold of her. Raven's eyes widened, but it was too late. She vanished, and the young man vanished with her.

Moments after she did, the sky was darkened as legions of red and black robot drones lined up on the edges of the buildings, joining the fight against the remaining Titans.

*As seen in "Teen Titans Go! (2004-2008 comic series) #45

A/N: Fun facts - The beginning of this chapter was re-written several times. I could never quite get it where I wanted it and even now I'm not entirely satisfied.

Only Lance's name remained unchanged from the first draft. Brand was originally "Edge", but there were too many negative connotations (like "Edgelord"), and the name Brand works better in ways that won't really be revealed for a very long time. Saber's original name was "Katana" (and wielded a matching weapon), but I remembered there was already a prominent Katana in DC Comics, a member of Batman's Outsiders team.