Teen Titans: The Beauty of the Dark - Book Two

Chapter 9

"Brushogun?"

Brushogun grunted weakly, "So glad to finally meet you."

"You're not the one behind all this, are you!? You're just-"

"His...slave," Brushogun cut Robin off.

"He trapped me in this thing...This cursed printing press uses my powers against my will. The criminals I create serve him now."

"But you sent the car, didn't you? You set me free! And you sent Saico-Tek to our tower because-"

"It was the only way I could call for help. I knew that if one of my creations attacked your home-"

So Saico-Tek attacked us solely to give us a message.

"It would give us a reason to come to Tokyo! A reason to find you!" Robin put the pieces together.

"So you weren't the one who framed Robin!" Cyborg realized.

"Saico-Tek was printed twice. I sent the first to you as a messenger. He sent the second to Robin, as a trap," Brushogun explained. I stepped forward, with tears streaming down my face. I looked up at him, feeling his pain, emotional and physical, in my body.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. Brushogun's eyes widened as he took in my frame.

"You," he said weakly, "I n-need your help."

"The Saico-Tek you sent said Serena was needed, yet he confused her for me, and I was the one she attacked today. Why?"

"Serena was known as a very powerful witch of the dark arts, much to the dismay of Amara's magic descendant line. She was already immortal when we met. She is the one who guided me through the dark spell that brought my art to life. When she wouldn't help me reverse it, she informed me of a descendant - the descendant that she corrupted, the descendant that didn't know the truth about the lineage."

"Me," I whispered, earning a weak nod from Brushogun.

"So you mistook me for Serena to give me another reason to come here and know the truth," I breathed, breaking into a sob.

"Yes. You...needed to find out for yourself. It was Serena who manipulated your entire life - down to cloaking your true form."

"Sparrow... What's he talking about?" Robin turned me to face him, causing me to break into another sob. I turned to look at my teammates, and they seemed to be asking the same thing.

I sighed, trying to hold myself together, "I was attacked by Serena today, and when I first saw her, I wanted to run because she was my twin, a mirror image of me. That's what I've been having nightmares about, but I thought it was just trauma of the Black Dahlia. When I woke up in a cemetery earlier tonight, she told me everything. Serena used magic and other sources to make me think that I was related to Clark and Kara, and that I actually had parents."

"Where is this going?" Robin asked.

I took a breath, " I'm not from Krypton like Clark and Kara, and she's the one who tracked down Slade and Lex Luthor to go after me! I'm a witch! I'm a witch, and she's a vampire. It was Serena's blood that did this to me! She thought of everything! She thought of my powers, my species, my vampirism! She thought of everything, down to cloaking what I really look like!!"

"What!?"

Show us.

"I thought I had a fresh start, I thought the mystery was over, but I was wrong. I grew out of who I was before and now-" I felt the shape-shifting ability fade, revealing to everyone my true form. The dimensional, lavender hair, the zombie toned skin, the hazel eyes - everything.