over due fees [

[William Talbot]

Even with all that had happened the last few weeks, Will had managed to keep himself sane, and on an even keel, and a large part of that was by reading, however, he had gone through the bulk of the books in the Titans Library, not that there where THAT many, but it was still a lot, and he had depleted the reserve of new and old books, and while he was curious to read some of Raven's more archaic books, he had been well warned by Robin NOT to enter her room without invitation, so he settled for going to the Library.

From the outside, it looked fairly impressive, if a but old and in need of some freshening up, still once he got inside, he had to hold a smile in, at the scent of books, old and new, the soft hum of lights, and the buzz of computers.


It brought back some fond memories from a time when things where simpler and happier for him, when he had little to care about, other than his friends and family, and none of the responsibility that he now shouldered as a Teen Titan, and it warmed his heart in a way to feel so nostalgic.

The feelings kept swirling about his mind as he walked to the front Desk, looking for help in getting a Library card, since his old one was long gone, and he wanted to take some books home, rather than just stick around here and read, which he planed on doing anyways.

"Excuse me, miss?" he asked softly, a young woman not too much older than him, if at all, her back to him as she put some books on a cart next to the large, low wooden desk. Hmm, there was something vaguely familiar about her, maybe he had talked to her before?

[claire]

Claire placed another book in its spot, dusting off the musty bindings as she did so. She hadn't been a librarian for very long, but already the work was second nature. She knew that most would find the work boring, but it left her free to explore other possibilities in her mind. With that Wolf Boy being an ideal prospect for a battle partner, she would have to find some other way to keep him coming back for battle. The most likely prospect for bait is something that was connected with the most emotions. From rummaging through his head, she knew that his past wasn't ideal. He would get over that eventually, and she would lose her advantage. No, she needed something more present.

That girl, the one from his mind. Violet, yes, that was her name. She could very easily be the one to stir him into fighting. If she was to go after this girl, he would definitely get involved. All that she had to do was a bit more recon in his mind to find out what she could expect from this girl. She wasn't reckless enough to go after a person without knowing what she would find when she got to them. Even one so insignificant as the bait for her target. Virage knew virtually nothing about her, other than a few flashes from Blaze and the strength of the emotion in his mind.

She replaced another book on the shelf and turned around as she heard a voice. Well, speak of the devil. She didn't use her powers at work, knowing that in a city this large, there was bound to be someone who could detect her thought-probe. Such as the one before her. She couldn't risk having her secrecy jeopardized, so she kept her powers under wraps. She adjusted her glasses and looked at him with the same innocent and vacant eyes that she gave the rest of the librarians.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

[William Talbot]

Will smiled slightly and nodded as he looked to the book shelf behind her then looked up at her, and froze stiff...


Destiny...


William physically jerked back as if she had reached out and struck him with a sledge hammer square in the jaw, his eyes big bright and glowing, a gust of hot wind bursting away from him in all directions, tousling his hair and scattering any papers not held down, as he gasped in and almost trembled, his hands shaking...


Flashes of thought pounded his mind, his ears rang as if they where subjected to gun shots from the inside out out, his eyes pulsed and throbbed with pain and power as his veins and arteries suddenly bulged out and glowed all over his body, flashes of nightmares, memories etching along his being, blood everywhere, the scent of death, a gut wrenching pulling at him, as he looked at her, then stuttered out; "D-d-d-Des... Destiny?!?"

His jaw clenched then trembled as everything went back to normal, the sudden change that had swept over him lasting only a few frantic heartbeats, although he would have sworn it was longer, "I... You're dead... I thought you where dead..." he whispered as he saw her, her face, her eyes, her hair, her stature, her figure, all of it was almost exactly the same as he remembered it, maybe older in some soft subtle way, but it was her without a... Doubt?

Suddenly Will was wary of this young woman, her mind was almost totally blocked off from him, not unlike how Violet's was, only instead of a gentle rebuff or mild bleed over, there was nothing but a stone wall of cold thought, not letting anything other than a name out, as if the name was imprinted on the wall like a sign: Claire Slater...

A single question rang throughout his mind, and slipped past his lips in a hoarse whisper; "Who are you?"

[claire]

How would one react if they got that kind of reaction from a complete stranger? Claire backed up a pace, her eyes registering fear and confusion, her chin lowering in instinctive defense. She was the perfect actress, acting as if she had never met this boy before and knew nothing of his powers. Like any normal human being, she acted frightened of this strange display of powers. Even Will, perceptive as he was, would be unable to discern the fact that she recognized him from their fight earlier. In fact, Will probably remembered little if anything about the fight. She stepped forward again as he calmed down, still looking a bit frightened.

"My name is Claire," she said in a small voice. "Sir, can I help you find anything in particular?"

She could feel something stirring in the back of her mind at the word "Destiny", but she ignored it. She had other things to focus on, so her memory issues would have to wait until later when she had time for them. For now, she would glean all that she could from this boy, who for some reason was falling apart in a public library. He couldn't have recognized her as Virage, so what exactly was his deal? She had to find a way to get information from him without revealing anything of herself. From this display, she could guess that he was fairly open about his emotions, and a lot could be gleaned from reading those.

Wait a second. Dead?

[William Talbot]

Will looked at her, up and down, from her waist up and back again, the rims of his irises still glowing as he gulped a bit, then locked eye with her, his mind racing and heart pounding...

It was her, and yet it wasn't all at once, as if all his memories where a lie, or this young woman standing in front of him was a lie, he couldn't tell which, but when he looked into her soft blue eyes, he could see that while they looked just like they should, as far as the pattern, there was an almost dullness to them, an almost total lack of the spark that he remembered there, instead he saw just a shallow and rattled meekness in them, and that shook him to his core like his worst night terror.

"I..." he paused, his eyes unable to look at her anymore as memories flooded his mind again, his gaze averted as he almost shut down, his mind far to busy boiling with questions, fears, and stunned reasoning to allow him to function much.

"Yes... I'm sorry, you look just like an... Old friend of mine... Uh, I need a Library card, my old one uh, was lost..." Will spoke softly, and sheepishly, as if he had done something wrong and had been corrected for it, his mind still torn over this, after all, she looked like, sounded like and even smelled like Destiny, but her mind was closed, and her eyes told him otherwise, her emotions subdued and even, just as a meek and mild mannered librarian should be.


But he still didn't fully believe that just yet...

[claire]

"Oh," she said, looking a little flustered. "Come with me, please."

She put the remaining books on the metal trolley and gestured for him to follow her to the desk. Her golden hair swept her narrow shoulders as she walked, and her short black heels clicked on the floor. Nothing about her denoted anything out of the ordinary, and it was something on which other librarians commented. They told her that she had no backbone, and that she needed to be more confident. A girl as pretty as herself should go out and enjoy life. They had no idea what was behind those vacant blue eyes, nor would they ever know. Her mask was perfect, down to the nervous picking of her fingernails which she had adopted. Slipping behind the desk, she pulled up the correct screen.

"Name?" she asked, looking up at him shyly.

This was the perfect opportunity for her to find out how to easily find him. It wasn't prudent to go destroying the town every time that she wanted to find him. A name and address would do the trick, and it could even lead her to his little girlfriend. Stupid boy. If only he knew enough to wear a mask on his heroic excursions. He had so much more to lose than he apparently realized, and his "secret" identity was little more than a smoke screen. It could be swept away by anyone who was paying attention, and she was. She might not have been showing it, but she was paying astute attention.

[William Talbot]

Will blinked some more and then nodded as she asked him to follow her, so he did, almost blankly, at least thats how it must have looked on the outside, but inside he was a churning mess of burning memories and emotions, the perfect irony lost on him, and of course, Violet was not present to point it out, but while most of his emotions where conveyed through his eyes and in many ways his face, only now where his emotions so strong and potent that he was holding them in, blocking them from the outside, since his empathic powers where now just about shorted out or at least shut down, his own emotions more than enough for him to deal with, he certainly couldn't handle any outside emotions...


Once at the desk, Will sat down obediently and waited for her to start, and once she asked him his name, he blinked and opened his mouth, and then froze.
Who was he again?
Right...

"Will... William Talbot..."

He felt as if he was suddenly lost in a mist of gray haze and dark corners, places he ought not have been for reasons unknown...

[claire]

She froze for a second at the name, but continued a fraction of a second later. William Talbot... The name sounded so familiar, and it triggered a whirlwind of snapshots of memory in her mind. What were these images? They went by so quickly that she couldn't make sense of them, but this boy was involved in many of them. She could have sworn that they had never met before their encounter in the warehouse district, but what were these memories with such strong emotions attached to them? She shook them from her mind and typed the name into the system. She blinked once at the computer's results.

"Your name isn't coming up in our system," she said, frowning minutely. "Have you had a card in this district before? It won't come up if you don't have an account in a branch of the main Jump City library."

So, William hadn't been in the area before? Where was he from, then? And why did she suddenly care so much? She couldn't help but wonder if finding out more about this guy would explain the strange pictures in her mind. She couldn't remember anything about her own past, but it had never bothered her before. She lived in the present and in the future. But this guy was bringing back memories that she had never known existed, and now the need to know was burning in her mind, even if her vacant eyes didn't show a trace of it.

Still, the burning need to destroy this boy was instilled in her, and that thought returned to the fore. She would use all that she learned to fight him where it hurt most. His heart. He would destroy his loved ones to bring on his fury, and then take him down when he was at his strongest. And if he defeated her, she knew that he wouldn't kill her, and she would live to fight him again. And if he did kill her, he will have fallen, and it would destroy him from the inside.

[William Talbot]

His senses sharp as knifes, William stood there, his empathy suddenly nearing overload, as he felt the void of the Librarian seemingly shovel all of the raw emotion of the room onto him, whispers and flashes of thought seeping out, but making no real sense, thanks mostly to the tiny amounts she let slip, and partly to the sheer noise that seemed to flood this place, despite calm and quiet atmosphere of the area, he could feel tiny little storms popping up across the ground floor, from the preteens "Sneaking" looks at an advanced biology book and the pictures therein, to the young brother and sister softly fussing over who got to hold a favored DVD, and the older gentleman who could for the life of him, could NOT find the one newspaper he wanted, and his middle aged daughter, who was now growing impatient with him, and wanted to hurry up and check out so she could go and read the cheesy early 90's romantic mystery paperback she had found...


Shaking his head clear, and fighting back the storm with a little melody he suddenly remembered, the songs name escaping him, Will blinked at her and shrugged; "Oh... Uhh, check the East-brook branch system, I lived there for grade school..."


Where on EARTH had THAT tid-bit of info come from?

Did he just remember something?
It seemed he DID, as pictures of a small spread out rural to suburban area suddenly erupted into his mind, memories of school, classes, the sight of the big city off on the horizon, along with trips to the big ZOO in Jump, and adventures in a small, slightly musty, but brightly colored Library flooded his brain, a few of the darker corners suddenly bathed in their own pale but solid light...


All of a sudden, William was feeling cold and VERY uncomfortable, despite the fact that he could feel a trickle of nervous sweat roll down his neck and back, and his blood tingle just below boiling, his inner flame shuddering nervously, as if he needed to vent some extra energy or direct his attention and powers at something that was simply not there. It was if he was slowly loosing control, his powers slipping out of his grasp and turning into it's own entity, apart from him.

He didn't like this feeling at all...

[claire]

Her vacant eyes caught every shift of his face, every flitting emotion that crossed it. He looked almost like she had when she'd first discovered her telepathy, when the raw information was overwhelming her mind, making her just stand there, staring into space. There was clearly something about him that she hadn't noticed upon a first encounter, some other power that she had missed. His fire powers couldn't be overwhelmed by standing in a public library. What fires could there possibly be? Cigarettes, engines? No, there was clearly something else happening here, and she would have to figure it out.

She typed in the additional information and hit enter.

"Here it is," she said quietly. "If you don't have your card, you'll have to fill out this form and sign your signature in this box."

She pulled out the form and slid it toward him, pointing at the indicated place. The computer said that he had an account in that branch, but it had been inactive for many years. Where had he been during that intermission, and why was he back now? These were questions that she couldn't ask without arousing suspicion, and as interesting as the answers might be, her cover was far more important. She would just have to figure it out by other means. At least with him filling in his address on the form, she wouldn't have to go looking for him.

"A-are you okay?" she asked meekly, noting his obvious discomfort.

He was sure acting strangely...

[William Talbot]

William fought with himself deep inside his own mind, the various emotions and feelings involved clawing for control, every thing from outright fear, to anger and confusion, and currently, confusion was winning...

Why could he not read her like most everyone else? What was she hiding? Was she hiding it from him, someone else, or just from everyone?

He would need answers to that, but something else told him that asking now would get nothing, and that he would need to try another way anyways, so he now turned his attention and focus inward for a few moments, pouring himself into the little melody that he was running over in his head, until everything was calm and still, if sadly not normal for him.

Looking back to her Will nodded slowly and snagged a loose pen from the counter as he glanced over the form, then filled out what he could easily, then went back to some of the details he wasn't so sure of...

DOB:[/b][/u]
Address:[/b][/u]
School (optional):[/b][/u]
Phone number:[/b][/u]
SSN:[/b][/u]

Okay, he was guessing that DOB was his birthday, and while figuring out the year wasn't a big deal (he knew he was 17 but how he knew was a mystery to him) he simply guessed the month, and picked a random day, and then spent a moment running it over in his head so he could use that date again should the need arise. As to his address, he shrugged and simply put down "Titans Tower, Seagal Bay Jump City CA" then left his school blank, and then stared at the last two blankly.

He had no clue what the Titans hotline number was, much less the main phone line, and what on earth did SSN mean anyways?

"Uhh... Could I get some help with the last two?" he said sheepishly, yet guardedly, his eyes looking to hers for a moment, and seeing a blank... Which for a boy who had grown up with a slowly growing sense of empathy, was one of the most unsettling things he had ever done...

[claire]

She looked at the data on her screen. It was a mystery. The date of birth was incorrect. The year was right, but the rest wasn't. How could he forget his own birthday? ...What kind of question was that. She didn't know hers either. This was just getting stranger and stranger. She didn't think about her lost past much, but with this boy... It was coming up more and more. She would have to sort through all of it eventually, that much she knew, but what she wanted to know now was why this boy was causing these stirs at the back of her mind.

No! No. She would focus on destroying him first and foremost. When he was taken down, she would investigate her own past. She looked at his form again and tilted her head slightly.

"This birthday doesn't match the one we have on record," she said. "Do you have a photo ID on you? Sorry, it's library policy."

She looked down, as if self-consciously. She could feel his empathetic probe, infiltrating the area like a fog. She could feel it, but it wouldn't penetrate her mental defenses. There were few who could match her prowess with mental barriers, and those who could were the ones for whom it was a primary and much practiced ability. His probe was clumsy and unfocused, and she knew that if he honed it, it might get to be more of a threat. For now, though, there was no danger.

[William Talbot]

Will blinked at her for a moment, they had his birthday on file? Okay, that was good, but also awkward now, and a photo ID?

"Oh, sorry... Uh, my bad..." Will felt his pockets for a moment, and then pulled out a black wallet and opened it, digging around in it for a moment, finding a few twenties and tens, and a bunch of lint, as well as...
Bingo!
Pulling out a card not unlike a Drivers License, Will set his State ID card down on the desktop; "Here, I uh, had a head injury not too long ago, and my memories are kinda foggy in places..."

'Because a madman murdered my family, then hung my girlfriend, and I got to hold her as she died...' He didn't verbally add, although now as the revisited memory flashed in his head, something about Destiny's death seemed out of place, what exactly he wasn't sure, but he wasn't really in a place where he could devote more thought to that.


She was still creeping him out with her intangible emotions, the effect on him not unlike boxing his ears, or taping his nose shut, but he was getting to the point where it really wouldn't matter if he could just get this library card dealt with, he could find some books, and be on his merry way, but she currently held all the power, in more ways then he suddenly liked...

[claire]

"Titans Tower?" she said, seeming surprised as she read the address. "You're a Teen Titan?"

Her shy eyes were curious as she looked at him, but then she recovered herself and looked down as she flushed pink. She wrote the missing information on the blank card, her script a tight cursive. Putting the pen on the desk, she filed the card away and clicked a few more keys on the keyboard before pulling another card out of the desk and presenting the pen to him. The card was a plain gray library card with a serial number and a line for a signature on the back. Sweeping her hair behind her ear, she looked at him again.

"I need you to sign your signature in this box," she said. "We should have this processed by the end of the week, but you can still check out books today. I'll put any rentals on your account."

She didn't like the fact that she couldn't very well read what he was thinking without him realizing that she was a telepath. If she lowered the mental barrier protecting her thoughts from his empathy, she might be able to read his mind, but he would also learn too much about her. Her vague expression matched the quiet and meek voice which she used in all that she said, and there wasn't a person in the world that suspected that her mask was anything other than authentic.

[William Talbot]

Will held the tiny tint in his cheeks as in check as he could, and for a moment, it occurred to him that with some practice, he would make a fine actor, but the thought passed quickly as he remembered himself and where he was, his reply almost automatic now; "Uh, yeah, I'm more of a guest at the moment..." he said vaguely, the cover being that since it was a Titan that had found him and given him help (Violet in this case) that he was now said Titan's guest until he was able to function on his own again...

It was also a bold faced lie in Will's book, and it irked him in a way that he didn't like one bit, but then he remembered the thought of being an actor, and that, should he have any other people from his past (like Olivia) he couldn't think of or remember now, or ever, then he should try and protect them as much as he could.


At last a relived look crossed his face as she explained the last few details to him and asked him to sigh his card and the paper work, his fingers flying to the pen chained to the desk even as her finished talking, his hand moving the pen in a fast, and slightly rough, if not tight script, a typical young male signature of large and small capitol letters that where almost stylized in appearance, lines that barely overlapped, an artistic arc to the curves of rounded shapes, straight lines that where slanted over slightly, the flow one of supreme speed balanced by god given control, his last name topped with a single line that joined the "T's" at the top.


"Uhh, okay... SO I just find the books I like and uhh then... I bring them here to you?" Great, so he wasn't going to get away from her as fast as he would have liked, still the prospect of getting SOMETHING to read and get out, and away from this empathic void, was growing, and that made him feel a little bit better about this whole episode, if only just...