TeenTitans #1: The Forgotten Son

Part 1

Ever since Raven banished Trigon back to his realm, she was finally able to show her emotions more easily and finally start feeling more human. Though it took some time, Raven became much closer with her teammates and truly saw them as family, especially Beast Boy. As the seasons passed, Beast Boy and Raven's bond slowly grew and surprisingly they turned into the closest of friends. No long after, it became apparent that Beast Boy had fallen completely in love with her. Though she constantly denied it at every turn, Raven slowly realized that she had strong feeling for him as well. Unfortunately, these emotions were far too new for her and she did not know how, nor wanted, to tell him. At first, Raven thought these feelings were childish and hoped that they would just simply go away with time, but they seem to have done just the opposite. These emotions slowly kept eating at her insides until she finally could not take it anymore.

Raven knew she needed to give Beast Boy some show of affection or at the very least start being nicer to him, especially since his 16thbirthday was coming up. Then Raven had an idea, she used her magic and created an amulet for him as a gift. It was an amulet of a black raven, it was designed to increase Beast Boy's resistance to magic attacks when he wore it which would be very helpful against villains like Mumbo Jumbo and Jinx. But sadly, Raven lost her nerve at the last second and swore the gift was only an act of friendship and nothing more. But even Beast Boy could tell that there was definitely something more to it.

So, with Trigon seemly gone for good, Raven and the other titans were just happy to have all the horrors over and move on with their lives. Shortly thereafter, the Teen Titans received a message from Arella, Raven's mother, that she and the other high monks of Azarath saw that Trigon was critically weak from his defeat and used a powerful spell to imprison him in red crystal. Since he was no longer a threat to the realms, they opened a portal and cast his imprisoned body back to his own realm. The titans were both thrilled and relieved by the news. With no one of Trigon blood to rule, the demons of that realm lost much of their power and their great realm slowly began to rot away like the flesh of a carcass.

So, with all that had unfolded, it would seem, for a short while at least, there was peace throughout all the worlds. But then, Arella began sensing something that was not right. She felt as if something new has been awaken and darkness was beginning to creep back into the realms. Rumors soon grew of a shadow in the demon world, whispers of a nameless fear. Whatever this thing was, it was hiding no longer.

"So, are you all having these visions as well?" Arella asked her fellow council members as they walked out of the Temple in Azarath and onto the steps leading to its courtyard. The high monks looked at each other with worried faces before they then turned back to Arella and all gave a concerning nod of agreement. One of the monks, the youngest by the looks of her, named Corinna stepped forward and said "yes, we keep seeing this... shadow... and it just... consumes everything in its path. We must mediate on this and learn how to stop it from coming." "My sister is right, but I fear that it may already be here" Thane, another high monk, replied.

The last council member, Saren, looked at Thane and asked "what do you mean by that, Thane?" "Some apprentices and students that visited the sacred shines on Earth have gone missing. I believe this thing is involved in their disappearance" he answered. "You don't know that, they could have just deserted us. Students have gone rogue before" Saren said in response.

Corinna then stepped in again and says "this is no simple coincidence, Saren. And I think you know that." "This is a grave problem no matter how we look at it. We must sit and mediate, perhaps we can find the answers there" Arella requested.

They all agreed and began mediating for hours in the courtyard, hoping to unmask this shadow in the dark. Suddenly a portal opens up right in front of them and they watch as someone slowly comes walking through and approaches them. He was covered in a black cloak, his clothes were old and torn, and his hands were like long razor-sharp claws. With the hood covering most of his face, the person smiles and says "good morning, how are we all?" "Who are you? Speak your name!" demanded Saren. "Oh, of course how rude of me. I am Makuta" he replied with a demented grin.