“This is the most… Grotesques… String of crimes I’ve seen in Jump… Bar none, and we have no clue who or what is doing it.” Detective Sean O’ Toole was the stereotypical Irish cop, a sixth generation officer of the law, his jet black hairline was receding as streaks of sliver where forming on his temples and slowly flowing back along the sides of his short, neat crew cut. He was standing at the head of an alley with Robin and Raven, as the end of the alley swarmed with a dozen CSI’s and officers, who where photographing and marking any evidence on and around the slim, curved nude body of a young girl, who had been horribly burned on her wrists, ankles, face chest and privates...

“Any leads at all?” Robin asked, as he looked at the detective, not wanting to look once more at the poor girls’ body, the last wave of bile having only now subsided.
“None.” O’ Toole sighed as he rubbed his neck and looked down the street. His light brown eyes where dull and weary looking and they matched the deep crows-feet that framed them.

They where in the heavy commercial/residential east side of Jump, about three or four miles from City Hall and the center of the now massive city. Only thirty minuets ago a frantic woman had called in that there was a fire zombie hiding in an alley behind her apartment near a block of restaurants and outlet clothing stores… The police called the Titans and sent a nearby bike patrol to check it out and begin evacuating people if needed. When they arrived minuets later, they only found a smoldering, dead girl, barely sixteen years old, her dark blue eyes glassy, locked forever in a state of sheer terror and infinite pain. It was the third of such crimes in as many days, and now a report was coming in that a new victim had been found ten miles away on the south side in an industrial park, a young delivery girl, in the same state as this as of yet, unknown girl; burned and seemingly raped to death…

“This is all we got.” O’ Toole held up a small plastic jar half full of thick, pink tinted goo.
Raven squinted at it, the rims of her eyes just faintly glowing; “What is it and where did you find it?”
O’ Toole made a puzzled face and answered; “That’s the thing, we found it in small quantity’s on her thighs and abdomen as well as in her mouth…”
“All places that might indicate rape.” Robin interjected as he looked at Raven’s face then back at the goo.
“Right, and the thing is we found it in even smaller quantity’s on and in our first two vic’s, but so far, my lab can’t figure out what the hell it is, it may be some kind of lubricant or oil based on it’s color and consistency, but it lacks the properties of either. So far we’re stumped.”
“It’s demonic.” Raven answered as she looked at the jar, her eyes glowing before she gasped; “No...” She then turned on her heel and started to walk off, a bit slowly and as if she might tip over...

Robin excused himself and caught up with her; “Raven, what is it? You said Demonic, but what else? What are you hiding?”
Raven turned and looked at him, her eyes pale and frightened; “Robin… I think it’s my father… that’s… well… “seed”… And I think it’s his…”
The boy wonder blinked at her then back at the crime scene; “Why do you say that?”
Raven paused then spoke quietly; “There’s something you need to know about demons, they have almost no power unless they can possess something. Only then can they manifest and be a threat.”
Robin shook his head; “But Raven, when we fought Trigon, he was real, he had a physical body!”

Raven held her hand up and stopped him; “Yes, because I had a physical body, that’s the other half of why he needed me, my body was a portal, and as he came through the portal, my body, the part which was bonded to the demonic parts of my soul, was made into a catalyst for his body or kind of skin for him, spiritual power is all he is, and that’s where I get my powers, and now that he’s been defeated, my powers are now bonded to me and I’m now human physically and half demon in spirit only. For him to come back he’d… Damm…”

Robin stared at her; Raven almost never swore, so for her to do so would mean that she had just realized something big,
“The clone?” He asked as he looked down the street himself and saw the late evening traffic moving down the unblocked streets a few yards away.
“Yeah, the Clone is how he got here, but since it was a clone of me after his banishment, then the clone was human, and could only be a portal… that means that Trigon would need a new host…”
“And I bet Inferno would gladly be one if it meant killing Slade.” Robin said as he turned on his heel and headed for his R-cycle.
“Follow me, we’re going to check out that other crime scene and look for clues.”

---

“How are the patients?” Terra asked Beast Boy as he walked back into the common room, his arms full of empty food trays; “Doing better all the time, Vic’s new legs came in today, so as soon as Robin and Raven get back they’ll help him hook everything up so he can walk again.” Terra laughed as she thumbed an itch on her jaw.
“That’s good, I don’t know how much longer Vic would have been able to stand having those treads for feet.” She was speaking of the small rubber treaded base that had been built originally for a service droid to help pick up around the tower, but the droid had never been finished, like many of Cyborg’s spur of the moment ideas… well, other than stank ball, but Beast Boy had helped a lot with that.

BB nodded as he grabbed a soda from the fridge and sat next to his friend; “Yeah, and Mystic’s arm is looking better and Blaze is up and about again, but he’s still limping a bit, I think that hit to the knee he took was worse than we first thought.”
Terra nodded as she looked at her friend, a slightly wistful look on her face as she looked out the window.

“What’s on you’re mind Terra?” Garfield had noted the look on his friends face and he wanted to help her if she was willing (and she tended to be) and anyway, there wasn’t much else to do right now…
“Oh… well I was just… thinking…” Tara made circles on the counter with her finger and sighed.
“What about?” Gar blinked a bit as he watched her gloved hand move, his eyes not really focusing on anything.
“Oh…” Tara blushed slightly and bit her lip as she looked off out the window, before she looked back at her friend; ‘My ex-boyfriend…’

“Well,” she said as he looked up lazily, his eyes clear, but his face blank, like he cared, but was a tad tired.
“I was thinking… Could there ever really have been an us?”

Beast Boy started slightly, his stool creaking loudly as he shifted uncomfortably…

‘Wow… I guess I should have seen that coming but… Geez Terra…’ Her real name was Tara Marklov, but she rarely used anything other than her nickname “Terra” as in “Terra Firma” still… ‘I’m wandering!’ Beast Boy blinked then thought good and hard about it…
He sighed and answered softly; “I… I really don’t know Terra… I mean, you where stone for almost six whole months, and then it was a year after Trigon was banished before we… I saw you again... That’s... That’s a year and a half Terra, and now that was over a year ago … Two and a half years is a long time… I’ve grown up a lot and... Raven always had a crush on me it seems and... Well, you left and she didn’t...” He reached his hand out and rested it gently on her slender shoulder and squeezed softly, feeling the warmth through his own glove… He felt rotten, but, the simple truth was that, while he had loved Terra, Raven was the one who had captured his heart… Ever since that first day on Titans Island, when she said she said that he was “kind of funny” he had only one goal; to make the dusky beauty laugh and smile for real, to light up a room with her soft voice... And it had grown into a kind of friendship that had but one outcome: true, honest, and forever, love...

“So that’s a no huh?” Tara said as she looked at her lap, her hands resting on her knees as she sat there next to Garfield.
Gar simply felt awful for her, but honestly, he couldn’t see how it could have worked out otherwise… unless… ‘No, you can’t change the past, no matter how badly you may want to… or need to…’

He shook his head as he lowered his hand and thought about that, he had once asked Cyborg to run a simulator to test a theory he had, it was based on what might have happened if his parents, Mark and Laura Logan had not died that day in Africa, if they had somehow survived or avoided the falls… The computer sim showed that Garfield’s father would have one day found a way to undo the effects of the serum, changing Beast Boy’s DNA back to a stable human state, thus making him a simple human boy again, and ending the crime fighting career of Beast Boy long before the Titans… Only with that, the Titans would have lost other key members because Beast Boy wasn’t there to take a hit, or warn of an ambush, or to track a villain down or… Any number of things could have happened, but the one thing that was almost certain was that the Titans would have never lasted to face Trigon and as such, earth was doomed... It drove home the fact that every member of the Titans was key to the success they enjoyed, and it made Garfield glad that while, his parents where dead, he had a new family in his friends, the Teen Titans...

“Look Terra, if things had happened differently, yeah, we might have had a shot, but, you can’t fight destiny and fate, only fate, and anyway, I believe things workout for the best, one way or the other, simply because we never give up.” He smiled and lightly punched her on the arm and laughed; “And look at it this way, I always knew Cyborg had a soft spot for you in his heart… it just took you being gone for him to snap outta it.”
Terra looked at her green friend and gave a half smile; “Really? You always thought that Vic liked me?” Beast Boy nodded and smiled; “Yup, it was easy to see at first I guess… Then after you came back, I just kinda went to mush on you.”

The two friends looked at each other and memories passed between them that where bitter-sweet, and heart rending…
“Thank you Gar… for being such a true and loyal friend… even when I didn’t deserve it.” Terra closed her eyes and leaned over, pulling the changeling into a warm hug which he gladly returned.

“Again?! How can you keep pulling the perfect hole card on EVERY third draw and hit a set like that?” Destiny huffed at William as Cyborg scratched his head and then shuffled the cards again.
“It’s not every third draw Destiny, it’s only the draws that I feel I can win, and it’s not hard, Hold em’s just knowing when to do just that, hold em’, I’ve really only really won about half of the hands so far, but you keep falling for my bluffs and Vic just goes for it all the time… Not an easy way for you to play.” He grinned at her and she rolled her eyes back at him while Cyborg got ready to deal out the cards and set it up again.
She huffed at him again; “This is why I like five card. More work for everyone.”
“Wanna’ switch it up then?” Cyborg asked as he finished shuffling the deck.
“YES!”
“Sure, Aces Deuces wild?” Blaze asked as Victor started to deal out the cards,
“They better be.” Destiny said as she took up her cards, then smiled…

---

“No question, Inferno was here.” Robin said as he looked at a trail of footprints burned into the pavement and leading away, off into the woods south of Jump.
“He must have been in a hurry, she’s… she’s not as bad off as the last girl.” Raven’s normally even voice almost cracked with suppressed emotion. It was clear that this was hard on her.

Robin nodded as he looked the girl over; she was of average height and weight, with short cut dark brown hair that was almost black. Her eyes where just like the other girl’s, dark, and glassy, pain and horror etched into her soft round face…
It was then that Robin did a double take; she had as striking resemblance to the other victim… who reminded him of someone… some one close…

“Why would Inferno start this? It’s simply not his style.” Raven said as she looked off at the woods, her face blank, but her violet eyes sparking with thoughts and puzzlement.

Robin then almost fell over as Raven faced him; the two girls looked a lot like Raven… High forehead and widows peak, large dark eyes with wide eyelids, small nose, small pointed chin, small pale lips… the delivery girl was being put into a body bag and Robin stopped the CSI’s from moving her so he could look at her one more time. Setting his jaw and bracing himself, he gave the girl a good look, then gave Raven the same look; they had almost the exact same rounded figure: high full bust line, round wide hips and long toned legs…
“Oh my god…” Robin ran over and grabbed Raven by the wrist and pulled her away and into the shadows of a delivery building and pushed her against the wall, his face almost braking out into panic; “Raven, he’s after you... the girls look like you, have the same figure as you, and have the same features as you.”

Raven rubbed her wrist and glared at him until he spoke, then she blinked as it fell into place for her...
“We need William.” She whispered, her voice low and strained as her eyes started to glow with power.
“Yes, but Raven, why? Inferno wouldn’t normally do this,” he repeated as he looked over his shoulder,
“No. But Trigon would…” Raven stated flatly, as she finished mentally contacting Blaze and Beast Boy.

“Raven, that’s… Incest…” Robin almost choked on the word. He knew it was something that happened, he knew all about it, studying crimes, and those that committed them, but this... this was his friend, not some drawn picture, or statistic… Raven was one of his best friends in the whole world…
“So? It’s Trigon, he’s a Demon lord, a demi… and incest is nothing new to demons… in fact, in some levels of the sprit world, it’s the only way demons breed… to maintain blood lines.”
Robin shook his head; that was really bordering on TMI…

“Indeed, and it seems that to gain a loyal heir, I will need to make one that is more demon that human.” The eerie dual voice was lumpy and high pitched while low and rough all at once and it sent a chill of terror down the two Titan’s spines…
“And I know of an easy way to do that...”

Turning, Robin and Raven faced a tall man in a red and black leather trench coat with long black and white streaked hair, four red glowing eyes, fangs and pale, red tinted skin, and the stench of burned flesh on him...

“Inferno…” Robin growled, his staff already coming out before Raven could stop him.
“Not quite… Meddlesome boy!” With a hand gesture, a wave of dirt suddenly flung itself from the ground and into the boy wonder, knocking him to his knees.
“Robin!” Raven was instantly at her friend’s side, her hands glowing with ebony thought ready to block or attack in an instant should the possessed pyro-crazed villain attack again.
“Daughter, meet your… twin…” A deathly pale, and sliver headed girl that could have very well have been her twin suddenly appeared from a dark portal in the ground…

“No…” Raven could barely believe her eyes; there was her clone, looking back at her, her slivery eyes had deep dark circles under them and she looked almost like a zombie, but she was drawing a strong, steady breath and she looked as ready to fight as Raven was…
Robin reached for a few shock disks and as he did he pressed the panic button on his communicator, alerting the other Titans in Jump to his and Raven’s location and sending second signal to Titans East, and the other members of the Teen Titans… He rightly figured that this was that bad…

He spoke softly as he sized up the now half demon, “Raven… We need to get some room here…”
“I know…”
“Stop.” The light soft voice of the clone was calm, yet full of evil danger, her eyes softly glowing with ebony power…
“You will stay where you are, or I will kill you Dick Grayson, slowly and painfully.” Her face was blank, her voice flat and void of emotion.
Raven looked at the clone with death in her violet eyes, “Try it…” No one, not even a clone of herself was going to hurt her friends, especially one of her best friends...
“First Gem, you will not interfere…” with a sudden burst of dark energy, Raven was sent flying backwards into the waiting arms of the possessed Inferno...

“TITANS SCRAMBLE!” Cyborg’s cybernetic eye was flashing as he was talking the others through assembling his new legs and the reactivation of his sonic cannon, as the red alert hit the Towers PA system, causing the team to dash about in a rush…
“Gemme that power driver B! Des! Grab my new Power cell from my charging station in my room! Terra! Go and start the T-car! Starfire! Pick me up! Blaze! Hold my legs upright!” Victor was barking orders like an army drill sergeant, his voice loud and clear as he located Robin and Raven with there communicators, finding that they where on the lower south side… a good ten minuets in light traffic… if they drove… It was now time to test a little, “Modification” He had made to the T-car last month...

As he hooked his right leg up Cyborg started to plot out what needed to be done… With the level 1 red alert, there could only be a scant few villains they could be facing… And Trigon was currently at the top of that list...

“Let’s move it Titans!”

“YYAHAHRGG!” Robin ducked and kicked, punched, and blocked, his staff bent double lay behind him as he attacked the Raven clone, and she countered, with all the skill and power that Raven herself would have…

“You wish for death human? I can give it to you… in many ways…”

Robin kept quiet, not wishing to hear that hollow sounding voice anymore than he had to as he tossed a handful of smoke and flash pellets at her, which she blocked with a black shield of thought…
“NO!” Raven struggled and kicked, bit and elbowed as Inferno/Trigon carried her away from the fight, his fingernails slowly growing long and digging into her skin, his breathing hot and deep, his saliva spattering on her cloak and cheek as he spoke in that horrid dual voice; “Oh come now... You are about to be honored by me, you’re father! Think of it, you will have redeemed yourself in his eyes!”

In a brief flash of thought, Raven considered how that sounded… it seemed that Inferno and Trigon where still working out who was in charge, as judged by the way they where talking… that might give her an opening if…

Her thoughts where shattered by dark laughter as she felt her body slam into the earth, knocking all the air out of her and causing her vision to spark, spin and even fade slightly...
‘Garfield… William… where are you? I need your help!’ her thoughts where frantic as Inferno bound her to the earth with stone and fire bonds that started to slowly burn into her skin...
‘NO! This can’t be happening! I… The one thing I never let go of… Just incase I beat the prophecy… I… NO!’

Panic filled the young sorceress’ eyes as her cloak was ripped from her body...
“Don’t worry… you’ll black out from either pain or ecstasy long before it’s over…”
“Unnnghh! No! STOP!” she strained to form a shield, to move the bonds, to open a portal… something… ANYTHING…
He then clawed the front of her leotard open, letting the cool night air hit her body, her pale skin now out in the light of dusk…
“Hmm… My but you are just as lovely as your mother...” The lustful evil in his voice was bone chilling...

“NO!”

Like something out of a nightmare, a large blue flaming wolf slammed into the possessed man, knocking him away with such great force that Raven heard at least five solid cracks from the impact before he sailed through the wall of the nearest building, caving it in on him…

“BLAZE!” Raven cried as the flaming wolf transformed into a tall and very pissed off Anthro-wolf with fire in his eyes…

His voice was low and deadly as he stalked at the now staggering Inferno, Trigon’s four red eyes still looking out at them:
“Don’t… Fuck… With… My… FRIENDS!” with a blast of pure holy blue flame, Inferno howled in agony as he was shot through the other side of the now wrecked business building, flaming debris following him into the far off tree line…
“Blaze! Oh thank the gods!” Raven grabbed at her tattered cloak and draped it around her, covering her exposed form…
“RAVEN!” Beast Boy landed almost right next to her, a frightened look on his face as he held out his hand to her.
“Beast Boy!” Raven said as she stepped up and lay her head on his, and sobbed lightly, the shock now hitting her full force.
“R-Robin’s… In trouble… needs help…” “We know, Mystic and Star got him out just in time, Starfire and Cyborg are taking Robin to the Med wing now, while Terra, Mystic and myself are going after Inferno with Beast Boy.” Blaze’s voice was low and feral, his eyes still burning with heat.
“Thank you William… I-” He held his fur covered hand up and shook his head: “I’m a Titan same as you, and Titans stick together right?” Raven nodded, and Blaze mimicked the gesture before he waved for Beast Boy to follow him, “Let’s start hoofin’ BB, I don’t want that monster getting the chance to get his wind back.” With a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, Beast Boy left Raven and dashed after his teammate into the woods as Terra and Starfire flew overhead, while the sun started dipping below the horizon…