Disclaimer: We own neither Teen Titans nor Jackie Chan Adventures

Authors' Note 1: It has been a long time since we started work on this idea, over a year now. At last the curtain rises on the secret project; I feared at times it would never happen. On with the show …

Project Dark Jade Proudly Presents

"A Shadow of the Titans"

Created by Nocturne no Kitsune

Betaed by Zim'smostloyalservant

Written and Developed by Nocturne no Kitsune and Eduard Kassel

Prologue:

Cackler

It was a swirl of colors; lights, sounds, and darkness blending together to create a mind-blowing vision as Jade was thrown through the shifting void. It took all of Jade's will to not throw up or scream. All of a sudden, her face met dirt or sand, and somewhat hard. Sputtering, she spat whatever it was in her mouth out and rubbed a few stray grains of sand from her eyes with her sleeve and looked around with wide eyes at her strange surroundings.

She found herself on an island of sorts, barely larger than a mall parking lot and composed of a stretch of sand and small boulders. But the sand was some strange color; or rather it didn't have a color at all, and was pure obsidian black. The boulders and rocks were even stranger, all of them actually crystals, a deep red with pulsing black veins running through them. To Jade, it was actually pretty creepy. Looking up, Jade decided to keep her eyes down. The sky above was still the panorama of chaos that it had been before, and looking up at it now from a more solid standpoint was still not helping her stomach any.

Now, normally, she would be up for a wise crack about her situation right about now. But Jade was able to see that for once it was not a time to joke – she was in serious trouble. So she decided that for now she was going to have to figure out what to do. Taking a seat on the sand, not wanting to take a risk by leaning on the strange rocks, Jade made sure she still had her talismans, and thought to herself.

"Alright, recount. Tagged along with Uncle and Jackie to banish a demon for a friend of Uncle's, who was actually older than Uncle if that is even possible. Hunted down the demon, turned out to be a wimp and Jackie beat it hands down with some killer kung fu. Uncle went to banish the demon, and ended up banishing me too, again! Now I am stuck here in whatever netherworld Uncle picked for the demon, on some creepy island that is floating in a modern artist's worst nightmare. Might as well look around while I wait for Uncle to fix this. At least I still have these babies. Pig for Eye-Beams, Rooster for Telekinesis and Levitation, and finally Dragon for literal fire power. Like to see someone jump me with these!"

What a pity she had to say that last part out loud.

Jade smirked, stood up, and pocketed the Talisman's before she started walking in a random direction. From what she could tell, any direction was a good one; the island she was on did not seem that large. Unfortunately, Jade was right, and it only took a moment to reach the edge of the island. Looking down and over the edge, Jade could clearly see that the island was suspended in mid-air, or what ever passed for it here. So engrossed was she in the sight of the floating island and trying not to get vertigo from the visual chaos, that she missed the fact that she strangely and suddenly had company, on a formerly deserted island. But it did come to her attention, when a dry and raspy voice spoke out from behind her.

"Quite the sight, isn't it, girly? Takes some getting used to, but it's quite the beautiful thing once you do. Of course, there are some that do not appreciate it."

Jade froze at the voice, shivers running up and down her spine, and slowly turned around to come face to face with a scarecrow-thing, dressed in raggedy tatters of what was most likely a cloak at some point and a head covered by a deep hood. What really got to Jade were the glowing white pits that glowered out at her. Without warning, a bony and bandage wrapped hand shot forward from under the tattered cloak and wrapped itself around her throat and hoisted her off the ground, and the bone-dry voice continued, apparently lost more in its thoughts than paying attention to the struggling child in its hand.

"Yessss, like that blasted one that keeps trying to stop the Chaos, trying to prevent a glorious Omega from happening. Such a pity it is, He is always there, interfering in the worlds and making sure that they never see the beauty that is Omega. Oh, how I would love to wrap my fingers around his self-righteous little throat and cut out those all-seeing eyes He is so proud of, yesss. But no, I can't. He is too strong, too much power, and he has that thrice-cursed piece of wood! But now I have you, yessss. I can see what you are meant to do, and I won't let it happen! I can't fight Him, but I can stop Him nonetheless! Yesss, I'll hide you, make sure He can never find you, and the world will see the greatness that is Omega!"

At this point, it was all Jade could do to stay awake as the bony fingers tightened in an iron grip on her throat as the strange figure ranted and raved in its now obvious insanity and fear gripped her heart. For such was its nature, that her panic had driven the thought of the talismans from her mind, which left her at her captor's mercy. Whatever this thing had planned for her, she could not help but feel it was something she would never forget. Clawing at the fingers, she managed to get a gasp of air.

"Please, stop! I don't know what you're talking about you creep, so let me go!"

Jade continued to struggle, and the fingers tightened. The crazed figure cackled, and its pit eyes burned with a suddenly sinister white fire and a contrasting black energy started to dance down its arm.

"No, no, I do insist! But you are far too pale – you lack color! I will have to change that, yesss, and will have to change a lot of things to make sure He never finds you. I know just what to do, yesss, I know just what to do! Don't worry, you will like the changes I am going to make girly, it's a promise! And don't you fear, I won't change you too much, I am just going to bring something in you back to the surface and make it stronger! Oh yesss, He will never find you, and He will fail for once! The Stranger will fail, and Omega will rise and consume another world!"

The black energy washed over Jade and brought her fading world back into a painful clarity, as a burning sensation spread over her and the feeling of her skin feeling pulled off and put back on overtook her. If she had the breath to scream she would; the pain was so much. All of a sudden, the feeling vanished, and her sight started to fade out. She barely felt the bony fingers shift their grip from her throat to the front of her hoodie, as the cackling figure drew back and threw her off the edge and back into the swirling chaos. As she drifted off into the void and her sight faded completely to black, she could make out the figure waving from the island, and its dry voice in a cheerful rasping shout.

"Enjoy your trip, girly, and watch your temper! It's going to get you in more trouble then you think! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"

Jade's last thoughts, before she drifted off, were surprisingly simple.

"What a creep…"

Authors Note:

This prologue was written by Nocturne before his hiatus, it, along with this story, is posted by me with permission. This story must be considered a collaboration even if the site puts my name on it.

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