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━ END OF THE EARTH i. universal constants ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈୨♡୧┈┈┈┈┈┈┈
THERE ARE SOME THINGS ABOUT THE TEEN TITANS OF NEW YORK THAT SHOULD BE KNOWN. The first is that they all come from drastically different paths of life. One is an alien, another part demon, another raised by Batman. Some use arrows while another fights off her enemies with a lasso. One wields a ring from another dimension and her teammate can rearrange his molecules. No two are the same, not at a single point in their long (and soon to be even longer) history.
The second is that, because of the first part, they tend to be extremely accepting of people from other walks of life. It's why, when a Markovian princess appears at their front door (well... maybe it wasn't as nice as that), they don't ask too many questions, don't try to pry at her history and rip the whole thing open. They just let her be, accepting Tara Markov with ease.
This is supposed to be their downfall. Their kindness, their compassion, is supposed to get them killed ━ or close to it, at least. This is designed to be the changing point in their history, a signal that things are only going to get worse.
That's how the story is always supposed to play out. Some things may change, but the main beats stay the same; Deathstroke manipulates a child, said child betrays the team that took in her and somebody always dies.
Except ━
Except that, in this universe, there's a Star Sapphire. There's somebody who radiates love, who looks at this lost, sad girl and reaches out.
Some things do stay the same. Deathstroke still manipulates and twists Tara Markov to his needs. There is still a betrayal. Somebody still dies. It's just the details that shift, turning on their head and forging a whole different story.
But not yet. For now, there's just this: Freya Anastas, late for training and Tara Markov, trying her best to settle in at Titans Tower.
Freya stumbles out of the elevator door, blowing stray strands of her hair from her face, and this is the first time Tara sees her in person, not in a video or a file. This girl is alive now, with flushed red cheeks and a smile just waiting to bloom on her lips. The ring is on her finger, yes, but she has yet to be enveloped in that violet glow, and she's still the most lovely thing Tara has ever seen.
Star Sapphire, Slade has told her, is one of the most dangerous Titans. On her right hand is one of the strongest weapons in the galaxy, one ripped out of another universe and given to the nearest person. Nobody truly knows what it can do ━ how the other universe differed from theirs, if the rings were entirely unique entities.
Here's what they do know: Freya Anastas is sixteen. She used to go to an upper-class high school, where she was a cheerleader and lived the life of a rich white girl. Then, one night, on her way back to a party, everything changed for her. She met a dying Star Sapphire of a different world and she was gifted with a ring, with immense responsibility.
