Chapter Text
When Colin Wilkes walked out onto Titans West’s outdoor training field that morning, he wasn't expecting to be greeted by a glowing green blur rocketing in out of nowhere, landing several yards in front of him, and dimming down to reveal the form of his girlfriend. She dusts herself off, catches sight of him, and breaks into a wide grin. “Hey, Baby! Great timing!” she crows happily as she moves in to hug him.
Ducking under her arms and dodging behind her was probably not the best way to handle that, but Colin was slightly panicked. She turns to him with an eyebrow raised in confusion and a slight frown. “What are-?”
Her unfinished question is preemptively answered by Damian Wayne exiting the building behind her, catching sight of her, and shouting, “What do you want, Reyes?”
Milagro Reyes turns to look back at him, confusion quickly resolving into annoyance. “You still haven't told him,” she realizes.
“Obviously,” Colin groans as quietly as possible.
“Colin Wilkes, you have no spine.”
“I am aware.”
“We went exclusive like a year and a half ago.”
“Well, if you omit the time you've spent off-planet…”
“Oh, do not dare bring my job into this.”
“Sorry, you're right,” Colin admits. “I just… What if he…”
Frowning, Milagro takes some pity on him. “Do you want me to-?”
“Oh god no, that would be so much worse!”
Now in range for actual discussion, Damian demands again, “What's going on?”
Milagro frowns at Colin who gives her a desperate and helpless look. Finally, she sighs, and turns to Damian. “Just got back, but we've got a new recruit coming in today,” she tells him. “So call in the girls for a-”
“The girls aren't here,” Damian interrupts, rolling his eyes like he expects her to already know this.
Milagro blinks at him. “What?” she demands. “Where the hell are they?”
Damian shrugs. “Los Angeles, probably? Maybe Gotham.”
Colin quickly supplies, “They took time off to be with Starfire and Nightwing.”
Milagro raises the eyebrow again. “Only Starfire and Nightwing?”
Damian's eyes slide to the side, his tell for what he calls “regrettable emotional responses.” He explains, “The Outlaws took a mission abroad six weeks ago, taking down smugglers on the Ivory Coast. Only Starfire came back. They still don't know what happened to Red Hood and Red Arrow. There are zero clues. The whole operation disappeared before she could get Batman out there.”
“Awe, shit.” Milagro rubs at the back of her neck. “I guess I can shuffle the recruit over to Titans East, even though they're pretty full right now. Or if you're ready to get back to work, I can shuffle some of their kids-”
“Actually, Red Wolf has been messaging me daily for the past nine days,” says Damian. “She's been pleading for an ‘emergency mission.’ She says she has ‘hit full capacity on Tamaranean feels sessions.’” This statement comes complete with air quotes. “If your recruit does want to work West, we can call at least Red Wolf in, if not Nightstar.”
“Actually, I do have a mission I was going to bring up with you,” Colin tells Damian. “It was going to be tough to handle on our own, so it could be what Red was asking for.”
“Awesome,” Milagro says, slapping her hands together. “Damian, call the girls in. Colin, get the mission details worked out. I'll go make sure everything is ready for Supergirl’s arrival.” As she heads in toward headquarters she shouts back, “And Colin, try to find your spine while you're at it!”
Damian casts a dubious glance toward his best friend. “What the hell is that about?”
Colin blushes deeply. “Oh… You know, um, Milagro and her wacky, um… So we're getting Supergirl, huh? Wow, weird. Wonder what Kara wants with the Titans at her age and level of expertise?”
Damian shakes his head and starts to lead them back inside. “If you'd read the news, you'd know she recently changed to ‘Superwoman.’ There must be another one.”
At the tail end of twenty years old, Lian Harper - pseudonym Red Wolf - was far from the oldest member of the Titans (which they'd learned to stop calling “Teen Titans” back during its first go when Beast Boy finally hit 20), but as she wasn't a leader like Robin or a trainer like Abuse, many people thought it was time for her to consider her options. Those people didn't seem to realize that it would be a cold day in hell when Lian let her fourteen year old stepsister, Mariand'r - pseudonyms Mary Anders-Grayson and Nightstar - operate on a team without her. And yet here she was, sitting in her childhood home in Tuba City, considering her options.
The worst part of the high emotional stress of a family with two Tamaraneans in it is the sharp contrast with her own emotional responses. With normal people, she just looked “chilly” in comparison. With her stepmother and sister, she looked like a robot.
And it was her father that was missing. She should care more than Mari, shouldn't she? It wasn't like growing up in a polyamorous family with three parents made one of them replaceable. She adored her dad. She just couldn't fucking stand the assumption that whatever the hell this was, it was something he couldn't handle.
Roy Harper could handle anything.
He had to.
She'd never forgive him if he didn't.
But to leave Mari now? For the sake of getting away from the sadness that was partially Mari’s? It wasn't like she even had a mission lined up. Maybe she should take Captain Chee at his offer of a job if she graduates police academy. That would teach her father to go missing.
Lian lets her head thump against the kitchen counter she's perched at.
She wonders if she'll still have a job at the library when she gets back. Maybe they just don't want to fire her over the phone while she's already sad. Maybe she'll never find out because she'll never get back because this will never be over because he's never coming home and-
Doodoodoodoo Doodoodoodoo Doodoodoodoo
Oh thank fuck.
Lian nearly drops her phone pulling it out of her pants so fast. “Robin? Problem?”
“There's a new teammate and a mission,” he grumbles into the phone in that distinct tone that means Milagro, the Justice League-assigned supervisor for both Titans teams, is back and he's both pissed and relieved - the latter of which he would never admit to. “So, if you're ready… I mean, if you need more time…”
“We'll be there as soon as possible!” Lian cries maybe a smidge too eagerly. “ETA to come.” She hangs up and is out of her seat before she realizes that she forgot to ask Mari’s opinion before accepting. Eff. If she goes without Mari, there's no way she's going to make it to San Francisco by tonight. Oh well, she can always call back.
She takes a moment to collect herself so it won't be obvious how desperate she is to get out of here, and then she heads to the living room. There, she finds her stepfather, Dick Grayson - pseudonym Nightwing - stretched out across the couch with his laptop propped up on his lap as he scowls at some spreadsheets. Sitting behind his head, Mari is trying to braid his hair despite the fact that it's pretty short these days. She's doesn't appear to really be enjoying herself, but at least she's not openly weeping?
“Uh… Robin called…” Lian opens carefully. Not carefully enough based on the way Dick and Mari immediately sit up. “About Titans stuff!” she amends quickly. Now Dick just looks skeptical while Mari looks confused. “Um, he's trying to be understanding, but there's a mission and a new recruit-”
“A new recruit?!” Mari squeals at the same time Dick says “OW!” because she'd accidentally pulled on his hair in her excitement. “Who is it? When’s the mission?”
“I, uh, forgot to ask… about either of those things.”
“Because you really want to go back, huh?” Mari says with a small, pitying frown.
Of fuck Tamaranean empathy. “I… He said…”
Dick is making a pinched expression. Is he trying not to laugh? “Mari, what did we tell you about announcing your sister's feelings?”
Mari frowns down at her biological father. “What?” she demands somewhat petulantly. “It's only you.”
Dick rolls his eyes. “And it's only Lian's feelings, which she gets to decide whether to announce or not, no matter how obvious they are. Now apologize to your sister.”
“I'm sorry I said what everyone knows,” Mari grumbles.
Lian shoots her stepdad a betrayed look. “You knew.”
“Lian, I've known you almost all of your life. You aren't as subtle as you think you are.”
“So are we going?” asks Mari.
Dick looks back at her again and says, “Lian can make her own decisions. You, however, have to ask your mother. I'm okay with it if she is.”
“Be right back!” Mari promises, hopping off the couch to find Koriand'r - pseudonyms Kory Anders and Starfire.
Lian watches her go, then turns back to Dick. “Why didn't you say something?” she asks.
He sighs and sits up properly and puts his laptop away on the coffee table. “Look, we didn't want to put pressure on you. We thought you'd say something eventually, but… We've been talking.” He gestures wearily to the laptop and says, “Research hasn't helped much. Your mom and I thought that when you girls were ready to go back to the Titans - or whatever you wanted to do next - we'd go join Queen at the site, see what we can dig up there. I mean it's not that we don't trust him-”
“But it's better than sitting here,” Lian supplies. “I could go with you.”
“Yeah?” says Dick with a half grin. “And who would hold Mari’s leash to ensure she stays here?”
Lian looks away. It's true that Mari listens to Lian more often than to Dick and Kori, but they could manage to convince her to stay. “You're just saying that because you know the Mari card works better than ‘we said no’.”
Dick’s smile turns a bit guilty at the edges. “Just as the Lian card works better for her than ‘we said no,’” he admits. “So is it working?”
Before Lian can answer, Mari returns, announcing, “Mom said yes!” She hesitates, glancing back and forth between Lian and Dick. “Did you send me away just so you could upset each other?”
“No, Mari,” Lian grouses. “It just turns out most topics these days are upsetting. It doesn't matter. Go pack while I tell Robin we'll be there in five hours.”
Mari looks suspicious but leaves. Lian digs out her phone and taps out the text message. When she finishes, she turns to Dick and tells him, “If either of you get hurt, go missing, or die, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth, bring you back to life if necessary, and then yell at you until your ears bleed for making us worry.”
Dick’s grin widens. “Noted,” he tells her. And then he hugs his daughter, quietly pretending not to notice her tears.
“I don't know what Mari would do without you,” she chokes out, and he can't help but laugh.
“You're so much like him; you don't even know," Dick teases her.
“There's nothing to worry about,” Clark tells his daughter as they jet at a much slower speed than he's used to clear across the country to Titans’ Edge, the San Francisco headquarters of Titans West, built into the side of a cliff. There have been a lot of Titans headquarters over the years, and, surprisingly, the one hanging precariously over certain doom is the one to have lasted the longest. “Both Kon and Kara have spent significant time with various iterations of the Titans.”
“Yeah, but they knew people there,” Joa-El sulks. “They weren't dispatched via Justice League to fill in a gap.”
They land on the helicopter pad, and Clark turns to her with all seriousness. “Joa, if you don't want to do this, you don't have to.”
“No,” she says quietly. “I never get to actually participate when I team up with family. Anything I can handle, you're fully capable of handling for yourself.”
“You could always just… not do the sup- Okay, stop glaring at me. I was just voicing the options.”
“It's fine,” says Joa, crossing her arms over her chest. “I'm just nervous.”
Clark smiles gently and assures her, “I promise there's no reason to be nervous. They'll love you. How could they not?”
“Are you going to stand up here all day or what?” Robin demands as he appears in the doorway of the roof stairs.
Clark sighs heavily. “To be fair, he's always like that,” he says.
“I should go,” Joa says with a forced smile. “Wish me luck?”
Clark hugs her tightly. Releasing her, he says, “Be good.”
And then he flies away.
The walk down the stairwell is quiet and echoing. Joa can hear whispered conversation in some other room, but the acoustics of the stairs make the sound unintelligibly garbled.
Soon, Robin is holding the fourth floor door open for her. She follows him a short way down the hall there to a room designated Mission Tactics. Again, he ushers her in, and she finds herself facing two more adults. Robin shuts the door behind her, and the woman Joa recognizes from television as Green Lantern Milagro Reyes steps forward with a broad grin and shakes her hand. “Supergirl! It's good to meet you! Welcome to Titans West!” she says. “My name is Milagro Reyes; I'm the Justice League supervisor for the Titans divisions. You've met Robin,” she says, gesturing to him as he comes around Joa’s side. “He'll be your team leader. And this,” She gestures to the red-headed man beside her. He's a sharp contrast with the brown-skinned, small and slight figure of Green Lantern and the tan-skinned, tall and broad figure of Robin, with his slightly above average height and his very fair skin and his noticeable layer of pudge. “is Abuse, the resident trainer. I'm afraid your teammates are-”
“SORRY WE'RE LATE!” a girl's voice shouts as the door is thrown open again. In bursts a girl that Joa estimates at approximately her own age, maybe slightly older, wide and round and busty with a huge mass of wavy, blue-black hair. She is pulling along with her a woman of unclear ethnicity with much shorter, thinner hair dyed blood red and glasses with actual prescription lenses. The girl comes to a very sudden stop when she sees Joa, causing glasses woman to nearly run into her. Her face transforms from surprise to glee, she jumps into the air (and stays there), and she shouts, “Oh my god, Jo-Jo?!!”
Joa looks over the girl. There is absolutely nothing familiar about her. She rarely meets with fliers outside her own family. “I'm sorry, I'm having difficulty… Have we met before?” Joa asks.
“I…” The girl hits the ground again. “I'm Mariand'r. We were friends?”
Joa hesitates. “We… were?”
Glasses woman rubs at her temple wearily. “Mari, you were like four years old. Only you would remember that,” she says. She reaches forward and shakes Joa’s hand. “I'm Red Wolf. This is my sister, Nightstar. We're your teammates. Specialties surveillance and sharpshooting for me, flight and brute strength for her.”
Oh great, another team where Joa’s skillset is already met by someone else. Joa forces a smile and holds her hand out. “Nice to meet you, Nightstar,” she says. “I'm Joa-El, Supergirl.”
“I know,” Mari says, glowering at her. “We've met.”
When she realizes that Mari's not going to shake it, Joa awkwardly lowers her hand. Robin rolls his eyes. “Don't take it personally,” he mumbles into his hand, obviously intending for Joa’s superhearing to pick it up. When Mari shoots him a suspicious look, he distracts her with, “Abuse? Mission?”