Disclaimer: I own a desk, computer, two dogs, and a ton of pens and notebooks. Did you hear anywhere in that plethora "Teen Titans"? Didn't think so.

Italics are thoughts while bold italics are flashbacks, and there's gonna be a lot of flashbacks.

Enjoy and, pretty please review.

Chapter One: Lights Out

The Titan common room was finally growing quiet after a very eventful day. Raven was curled up on the end of the sofa, while Robin and Cyborg played video games on the opposite end. Starfire and Jinx were wordlessly watching the boys battle, and even Beast Boy was silently staring at the blank wall opposite his seat at the kitchen table. Yes, it was quite relaxing thinking that just that morning they had been chasing bad guys all over town.

Suddenly, the television blacked out and the lights shuddered off. Starfire let out a small scream as Jinx jumped up and Raven gasped. Commotion and pandemonium broke out as everyone rushed around trying to find light switches and flashlights.

"Stop" Raven abruptly shrieked. Everyone froze at her command. The Goth girl used her telekinetic powers to bring out a couple candles and ignited them. She set them around the kitchen table as Cyborg fiddled with the main computer and Robin tried the lights.

"Someone's been meddling with our systems" Cyborg muttered bitterly after a few minutes of fruitless silence. "Not even the back up generator's comin' on."

"Gizmo's not above this" Jinx offered from her seat at the table.

"Neither is Slade" Robin whispered, putting his thumb and pointer finger on his chin.

Everyone started talking about who could have pulled the black-out on them. Beast Boy sighed and turned to look out one of the front windows. And realized immediately what had happened. Sometimes I think they want the answer to be hard and complex, he thought as he stared down on the lightless city.

"Hey, guys", but the other teens continued about which villain would have the most reason to take the Tower's electricity. Robin was right in the middle of proving that Slade was behind the scheme. "Hey!" the changeling yelled. "Shut up!" The squabbling ceased instantly.

"Or, maybe, the city's power just went out", Beast said in a mockingly simple tone of voice. "Ever think of that, or was it to simple for you?" He gestured out a window as he spoke.

"Um ya", Robin rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Or it could be that", Cyborg admitted, also highly mortified. But he covered it quickly with: "In that case we're locked in, nothing to do but wait it out." Beast Boy shook his head in disbelief at his friends' stupidity. Usually, I'm the stupid one, he muttered to himself.

There was silence all throughout the Tower for some time. Then, suddenly, there could be heard against the windows and roof the light pattering of a drizzle of rain which soon grew into a heavy downpour.

"The power sure picked a day to go out" Jinx whispered crossly, trying to keep warm by rubbing her shoulders. From all around the table came the sullen replies of agreement.

Robin was studying the placemat in front of him when he abruptly raised his head and stared at Cyborg. "Hey, Cy", the cybernetic teen looked over at his spiky-haired friend. "How'd you get to be" he indicated Cyborg's metal parts, "half robot, if you don't mind telling us."

Cyborg was quiet for a few moments, but then he spoke. "When I was a high school sophomore my doctor dad was thinking up new ways to save lives. A few of his colleagues were tinkering with a couple of different chemicals, when there was an explosion. It killed many of the men and—" here Cyborg had to stop and take a deep breath before he could continue. "And my mom", there were sympathetic sighs from the other teens. "I was fatally wounded in the explosion as well so my dad tried a couple of the prototypes on me. One worked."

"That must have been tough, losing your mom that way" Jinx whispered, her own coldness forgotten. "I was raised by my father in an old Indian village." The Titans turned to stare at their pink-haired, witchy friend. She turned her head down to look at her hands on her lap. "I don't remember my mother at all, and my father would never talk about her. He called me a witch when I was younger and I could never understand why until I was twelve, when I learned of my powers."

"I ran away soon after, and jumped the first boat that was heading out." Jinx paused for an instant while Raven got up and served everyone a cup of soda. "It happened to be going to the U.S., where my father came from, so at least I knew the language. I was taken to an orphanage as soon as I step off the gang plank. I ran away from that after three months when I found out about a villain school for gifted teens. Brother Blood accepted me, and you know the rest."

There was again that awkward silence until Robin spoke again. "I remember the orphanage I was taken to after my parents' death."

"I didn't know you lived in an orphanage." Robin nodded.

"My parents were acrobats in a traveling circus", the faint shadow of a smile tickled his lips as he thought. "They were they Great Dickson Duo." Now the very slight smile disappeared to be replaced by a look of sorrow. "I was four when my dad missed the trapeze and fell. Then, when I was eleven, my mom lost her balance on the high-wire and fell."

"The ring master couldn't afford to keep a kid around, so I was taken to an orphanage in the town we were passing through." The team leader looked more thoughtful than he ever had before. "A couple of weeks living in that rat-infested hole, and I thought I was about to go insane. That was when Bruce Wayne came by, and on pure chance he adopted me."

"He taught me about right and wrong, good guys and bad guys. It wasn't until much later that I found out he was one of those good guys." Robin broke in his past description to take a gulp of water. "That was when he started teaching me kung-fou, and letting me come with him when he went out at night. We caught crooks, nabbed felons, and for a while everything seemed perfect."

"Then, a short while after a turned fifteen, we had a bad fight. I left and came to Jump City to fight crime on my own." He glanced around the table at his friends. "But things didn't go as planned, instead I met you guys and we formed the Teen Titans."

"Bruce was Batman, wasn't he?" Raven asked Robin. He nodded at her. "So, he pretty much made you what you are today." Another nod accompanied by a tiny smile was her answer.

"I think my mother was responsible for how I turned out", Raven started after a second. "On Azarath, she was like my mentor. She helped me to control my emotions and taught me most of the spells I know." The silence that greeted her pause prompted the sorceress to continue her story. "The funny thing was she didn't have any powers, she pure human. But she was all I had on Azarath except the monks, and they were more like teachers than family."

"When I was finally told I was destined to destroy the world, I ran far away from Mom and the monks. I didn't really know where I was going and I didn't care at the moment, but I ended up here in Jump City. You guys found me, and I was welcomed without fear for the first time since I had been brought to Azarath." the Goth girl finished in a fuller voice than her usual emotionless one.

"This 'Azarath', it is another planet, no?" Starfire spoke in her customarily strange way.

"Uh, no Star", Raven replied. "It's a dimension."

"Oh, what is the difference?"

"A planet can be reached through a physical type of travel", blank looks greeted this new data. "Spaceships and stuff, but dimensions are like a twin of an existing place."

"Ohhh", was the only acknowledgement.

"How did you grow up Starfire?" Jinx asked the alien princess.

"Well, my sister Blackfire", everyone shuddered in remembrance of the evil alien as Starfire said her name. "She was three glabhorts when I was born. I was favored over her because I had the look of a common, non-royal Tamaranian, whilst she bore the more majestic, physical appearance."

"When I was barely above ten glabhorts it was decided that I was to be the heir to the throne. This news did not improve my fragile relationship with Blackfire, as she was to come of age soon", Starfire told her earth friends sadly. "She grew much more arrogant and conceited in the presence of guests, and soon came to project a spiteful air towards my person."

"It was soon after my fifteenth gorgetanth that my planet entered a precious stage in our war with the galactic slave-traders, the Megutiots. In order to keep Tamarania secure from invasions, my father was forced into a covenant with the foul creatures." The usually cheerful girl's face had fallen to display a look of grief. "It was in this bargaining that I was sold to the Megutiots, in exchange they would let Tamarania alone."

"I was being transported to a marketing planet in a dungeon cell when the ship's navigational systems faltered and the vessel veered too far off course, and it was forced to land on the nearest world." She glanced up at her friends and smiled when she continued. "I was freed by my earth friends who also helped bring the Megutiots to justice. And, the saying of humans, file fastened."

Everyone burst out laughing at Starfire's attempt at American sayings. "I think you mean 'case closed'", Robin corrected her through his bursts of giggling.