Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The hour was still early – around just after noon, to be exact, when the sun hit his room just right. The room of beast Boy (or Gar, as some knew him) was bathed in a relaxing light that the changeling absolutely loved to relax in. Unfortunately, said changeling did not have the time to just relax in his room at the moment. He had to pack for an important mission instead.

While he filled his suit case with only the essentials (as he saw it, of course), one of his team mates sat on his bed. The dark sorceress watched as article after article of clothing was thrown haphazardly into the case. After watching for only a few minutes, the contents were soon engulfed in a dark aura of magic to organize them better.

“Beast boy, are you sure you should be going?” The sorceress asked for the third time since hearing the news. Her team mate was being sent on a solo mission.

The green teen looked to the girl sat on his bed, a shirt hanging loosely from one hand. “Rae,” The name came out as a whine, “why can’t you trust me on this? I told you already! I’ll be fine.” There was a pout evident, and the pout refused to lessen as the shirt in his grasp was wrapped in the same dark aura as the rest of what he was packing.

“I’ve told you, it’s just Raven. Not Rae.” An irritated sigh escaped, but she did not seem too upset with the nick name. She never was. The nick name was just… strange to her, so she didn’t know how to feel about it. Yes, “And I do trust you, Beast boy. I just don’t trust my feeling on this one.”

The boy walked over to the edge of the bed, to place a hand either side of Raven’s crossed legs. She was sat in the middle of his bottom bunk facing him with an emotionless stare, though by the tone in her voice and his heightened animal empathy (1), he could sense Raven’s distress. “Hey, everything’ll be okay… Robin would never send one of us on a solo mission if it were too dangerous to handle alone. And he already told me it wouldn’t be too dangerous. A quick in and out.”

Raven really wanted to believe him. She really did, but just something told her this wouldn’t be the case. Something told her something bad would happen later that day, and it would somehow be related to the green teen in front of her. Still, she could tell nothing she would say would deter him. He wanted to prove he could handle a solo mission and had begged Robin for a full two days until the boy wonder had given him something. “I still don’t like this.”

The green teen smiled to her as the pair of gloved hands engulfed both of her ones to brace them together while his own hands embraced hers. He lifted their combined hands closer to him and moved his own hands down some so the tips of her fingers poked out. A gentle touch of lips was placed upon the index fingers before green lips pulled back enough for her to properly see the dust of pink that crossed his cheeks, and the assuring smile he tried to help her mood with. “I promise… It’ll be okay, Rachel. Have I ever lied to you on a promise before?” He asked, playfully using her less preferred name only he was really allowed to use.

The sorceress’ cheeks were dusted with a darker shade of red than her companions, as purple eyes darted from the soulful stare, down to the bed sheets in embarrassment. “Garfield…” She tried to reprimand.

“Come on, Rachel, just answer the question.” His tone was still gentle as he held her hands in his.

The half demon exhaled as her shoulders slumped a little. “… No, you’ve never broken a promise to me.” Her gaze wandered towards his night stand beside the bed, where a framed photo of them at the piers’ carnival was propped. In the photo, they were holding hands, and the smallest of smiles had appeared on Raven’s lips. Beast Boy – or Garfield to her – had just told a cute joke about parrots and their favorite games (2), and Raven had found the joke to be somehow… endearing enough to crack a smile at.

Just after Cyborg had turned around and caught the moment, Beast boy had the broadest grin ever on his face. He had raved forever that night about how he caught a smile from one of his jokes on Raven’s face. He was so proud of his accomplishment, that Raven never found it in her to argue on how she did not smile at one of his “ludicrous” jokes. She just let him have his moment. Not to mention, he deserved a moment, considering he got a good mouth full of Plasmus that morning. Anyone would deserve a good moment after something like that.

“Just… promise me you’ll be careful?” Raven pleaded, as her gaze was torn from the frame to find his own gaze once more.

A single hand moved from his hold on hers to cup her cheek. She leaned into his touch, but her eyes never left his. They never closed as purple stared soulfully into green. “Rachel Raven Roth, I promise with all my heart, I’ll … do my best to be careful. And I will come back to you.” A wide grin suddenly formed and Raven knew he was going to say something to ruin the moment. “In fact, I bet I’ll be back as soon as tomorrow afternoon!”

Raven sighed. She knew it. He ruined the moment. Though at the same time, she did appreciate his effort. The smallest hint of a smile formed and she nodded. “Go finish packing.” She spoke in an almost demanding tone.

Garfield could see through her tone though. He always could. He gave a wide grin, before he kissed her index fingers again, before he released the others hands. He rushed to finish his packing and Raven would help every now and then… by mostly folding his laundry. She refused to ever actually touch it though, so it was always done with her powers.

When twenty-four hours passed, and no word came from the changeling, Raven couldn’t help but feel her concern rise again. What if her feeling really was something to worry about? She had mentioned her feeling was for the day previous, right? So that meant, either her feeling was wrong, or… Her hands clenched. No! She couldn’t think like that! Garfield had promised her! A deep breath was released. Her feeling was wrong. That was all it was.

Raven let her body relax once more. Her eyes closed as her fingers moved back into a proper Shuni mudra position (where her thumb meets her middle finger tip). Her legs were still crossed, and her elbows rest just over her knees. The pale woman slowly began to float upwards as her usual chant left her lips.”Azarath Metrion Zinthos…” The words were whispered slowly as she felt herself relax. Soon, she was within her personal cosmos.

Raven felt truly at peace at that moment. There was no one around at the moment to distract her from her daily meditation. Cyborg was working on the T-car, Robin was in the training room, Starfire was out to “the mall of shopping” (her choice of words, of course) and Beast boy… he was still off on his solo mission.

The pale forehead squinted together.

No! She already told herself she wouldn’t think on that! It was a distracting topic and she needed to keep herself in control! As these thoughts occurred to her, she could faintly hear a few voices that sounded similar to her own.

“If it’s such a distracting topic, why do you keep thinking on it?”

“Curious, we must not distract her.”

“But why?”

“Because she needs her time to be.”

“Awwwe, you’re no fun, Knowledge! How come you’re no fun anymore?”

“Sigh. Come along, Curious.”

“Okay! Where we going?”

“Brave…? Are you sure we should even be around here…?”

“Awe, come on, Timid! It’s all good, I swear! See? She’s not budging right now!”

“But… you know how she gets when we make too much noise…” A sudden squeak escaped the grey cloaked girl. “P-p-please let me go!”

“Hey guys! What’cha doing?” A more chipper tone this time.

“Happy! Just in time, girl! We were just on our way to Knowledge’s Temple! C’mon, or you’ll miss it!”

“What? Miss what?”

“Knowledge and Curious’s session on where BB is! Duh!”

“Whaaaat? They’re gonna talk on that? But Raven is meditating!”

“Jeez, you sound just like Timid now!”

“I do not! I’m just worried….” Raven could feel the three sets of eyes on her.

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos…” Her chant became a little louder, in hopes to drown out her emoti-clones.

“Come oooon, it’s not like Raven’s gonna pay attention anyways! Look at her! She’s in her own Cosmos right now!”

“Well, I guess you’re right… and it can’t hurt to be in the know ahead of time!”

“That’s the spirit! Come on, gals!” Another squeak came from Timid before the three left in a hurry of foot falls on the pathway.

Finally, Raven could concentrate again. The chant became a gentle murmur once more as her body relaxed once more. She concentrated solely on the stars, the black sky, the cosmos around her… the eyes that seemed to still linger on her back. An annoyed noise soon passed through her throat and passed her lips. Her gaze soon turned towards the one who was staring up at her.

Another annoyed noise passed when she floated down to land on one of the flat forms, just in front of her emoti-clone. “What?”

“Won’t you come to join us?” The tone was gentle, and nice. The clone before her stood in a soft lilac cloak, and instead of a scowl, a frown, a great big smile, trembling form, or any of the usual traits from the others, this one wore a tender smile. It almost looked… affectionate.

“No, I will not.”

A simple head tilt, and a raise of a brow. “And why not, if I may ask?”

“Because… I have to meditate.”

“And you cannot do this at another time? Curious was so hoping you would be there, you know.”

“Well, she’ll have to live with the disappointment, won’t she?” Her tone was cold this time.

A gentle hand reached out to touch the blue clothed shoulder. “… I know you miss him, but you must be patient. He did give you his word, did he not?”

“I… yes, he did, but…!”

“Then be patient, dear Raven… All will work out.” The affectionate smile remained throughout their conversation and Raven clenched her hands again before shaking her head roughly.

“I’m still not coming. I have to meditate.” The blue cloaked girl turned her back to the emotion. The lilac cloaked one exhaled a sigh.

“If you’re ever in need of an ear, please do come to find me in my domain, dear Raven.”

Raven didn’t speak for a while. The lilac cloaked emotion had already turned to walk towards Knowledge’s Temple and as Rave stood there, a few other emotions passed her.

Calm, Envy, Rude, Sloth, and even Rage had passed her. Each brushed her to try and send her a little wave of assurance (in their own ways, of course), and even Rage had tried to offer her something… though the emotion was a bit more rough with her brushing. It was more like a shove with her.

The girl did not move for almost five minutes before a loud voice – filled with distress – came from behind her in the real realm. Raven’s eyes snapped open from the surprise, and Raven was instantly to the ground with black aura around tight fists.

“Friends! Friends, it is an emergency! Please immediately join me in the room of living!” It was Starfire! She sounded – and sent off – highly distressed waves of emotions.

“Starfire?” Raven was the first to approach her, and when the alien princess turned to the sorceress, Raven blinked in surprise. In Starfire’s hands was her communicator clutched tight, but what surprised Raven was the fact that the princess had tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Oh… friend Raven!” The taller girl all but threw herself at Raven. The sorceress was not quite familiar with how to comfort someone just yet, so she simply wrapped her arms around the other awkwardly and pat her back slowly. The princess cried into her shoulder for a good few minutes, and by now, the door had opened and Robin ran over along with Cyborg.

Starfire was taken by Robin and he proceeded to murmur soothingly to her while he did his best to comfort her. Raven sent a confused look to Cyborg, who looked to her at the same time. The tin man only shrugged, indicating he was just as confused as her. It was then that three communicators began to beep in a way that indicated a message had been received.

Weird, none of the three had heard them go off with a call, so why would there suddenly be a message…? When the noise went off though, it only made Starfire wail further. Right, so whatever upset the princess definitely had to do with the message.

“Cyborg—“

“All ready on it, Robin.” Cyborg was to the control pad (that sometimes acted as their coffee table in front of the couch) and was tapping buttons on it. Robin had somehow got Starfire to calm down long enough to sit down next to him, while Raven apprehensively moved to sit as well.

Soon, the television slid down from the hidden hatch on the ceiling and covered their main window for the room. Not five seconds later, an image of Beast boy filled the green, though the image was a bit blurry. Raven assumed it to be t=from the frantic movement of greenery passing him in the back ground. He was running from something. Worry bubbled in Raven’s stomach.

“Guys! Uh… I don’t think this was a good idea for a solo mission!” The image spoke, and he sounded highly nervous. He was panting as he ran. He didn’t look like he was running as fast as he could though… whatever was chasing him must have made him extremely tired. “I… I don’t fully understand just who I was sent after! Robin only said it was some dude by Cinderblock’s description, but there’s no Cinderblock here, that’s for sure!”

Raven clenched her hands into fists once more – she seemed to be doing that a lot today. Whatever Robin had sent him on… She knew something bad was going to happen! Why didn’t she insist further for him to take someone along, at least?!

“I-I’m, uh… Not sure if I’ll make it back sometime soon! Rach… Sorry, I guess this time, I’m gonna have to break a promise… I’m so sorry…”

He sounded so sincere…

No! She had to reign in her emotions! She couldn’t let this get to her! She had to watch this transmission until the end!

“I’ll… I’ll make it up to you somehow though! That promise, I’ll keep! I swear it on my li-!” A gasp parted his lips and four pairs of eyes widened as blood formed from his mouth. A cough splattered a little blood on the screen. A few seconds later, the communication device fell to the ground. Beast boy followed it soon after, and a small cloud of dust came up with the thud of his body. The transmission didn’t end just yet though

“Awe, jeez… Did you have to stab him through the neck like that?” It was a young girl by the sound of the voice.

“He was getting away.” The second voice was more patient, but it was deeper and sounded like an older man with a European accent.

“Yeah, but… She said she wanted him alive when we caught him! Awwwe, now we’re gonna get in trouble!”

“… He’ll survive long enough for us to get him there. He’ll bleed out soon after, though.”

“Yay! Mission accomplished! Hehehe!” The girl actually giggled and soon a pair of pink rain boots came into view. “Oooh! Pretty!” A tan skinned hand that looked like it could belong to a six year old from the size alone came into view. With baited breaths, the Titans hoped they might get a visual of whoever this girl was.

“No.” There was a brief flash of something coming at the screen before the sick crunch of the communicator crunching came through, followed by the video cutting off and turning to nothing but static.

The room was filled with silence for a long two minutes, before the sobs of the alien princess resumed once more. “O-oh Beast boy…” wailed the princess.

Raven didn’t hear anything else. She didn’t want to hear anything else. From the corner of her eye, she caught the movement of Robin moving to comfort the girl. She also caught the movement of Cyborg eventually pulling himself together enough to get up to turn off the transmission. It took Raven another full minute before she could move, but eventually she stood.

She took a deep breath, but in Nevermore, she could feel Rage building up inside her. Her teeth grit and her hands clenched as dark aura curled around her hands. Little black lightning bolts cracked around her hands as well, as she turned to face Robin.

“This is your fault!” She suddenly screamed, pointing an accusing finger at their leader. “If you had just listened to me, none of this would be happening! But no, you had to go and get annoyed at Beast boy’s constant whining, didn’t you?!”

Raven could see his mouth moving, but no words would reach her ears. She was too consumed with her emotions becoming over whelmed.

The same accusatory tongue left her lips over and over as she allowed Rage and Sorrow to over whelm her. “Your fault! Your fault! Your fault Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!” She continued to scream. Tears started to leak from her eyes, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to scream right now. She wanted to point fingers. She wanted to blame someone. She… She didn’t want to accept the truth. As these thoughts slowly came to mind (thanks to Calm trying her best to reach her), the dark aura slowly began to recede from her hands and the fists slowly moved to cover her face. She had to… she couldn’t let them see her cry…

The sorceress already knew somewhere deep down (probably from Knowledge) about how they could already see her crying, but she just couldn’t care right that second. She had to hide her shame at that moment as much as she physically could. She lowered to her knees, and her hood came over her head as the tears continued. Accusatory sounds still continued, but they were no longer directed at Robin.

“M-my fault… this is all my fault. H-he’s dead because of me… b-because I couldn’t stop h-him… Beast boy….” The words were mostly mumbles by now, before she looked up. She looked past her friends, not even registering them as there anymore. “G-Garfield… Garfield… Garfield!”

Chapter Text

It took two hours, but finally, the common room was silent for a few minutes. Raven had retreated to her room, claiming she needed some time to herself. No one tried to follow. A while after Raven’s departure, Starfire claimed that she needed some air. She left from the Towers’ roof. This only left Robin and Cyborg. It was another half hour before either one spoke.

“We need to call all Titans and inform them.” Robin eventually voiced.

Cyborg gave a nod and soon he scooted towards the control panel once more. He made sure to exclude Star and Raven’s communicators, but other than the pair, he sent out a communication wave length before Robin scooted forward to speak. “Robin calling all Titans. Robin calling all Titans, please come in.”

Soon, the television screen from before began to fill with faces.

“Bumble Bee of Titans East, reporting!”

“Jinx and Kid Flash, reporting.” Jinx spoke up, and by the looks of it, (“thank God” came Cyborg’s muttered relief) they were stopped to answer the call. Seriously, Kid Flash running during a call could give people motion sickness. Cyborg wondered if it was on purpose sometimes.

“Hive Five, reporting!” Gizmo announced. “What do you crud munchers want?” The pair in the common room ignored Gizmo’s question for now.

“Gizmo, I told you to stop calling yourselves Hive Five already!” Jinx’s annoyed tone came. The bickering started between them, and Cyborg rolled his human eye as he turned down their volumes so they could properly hear the people reporting in.

“Aqua lad, reporting in from the Underwater base.” An annoyed huff came from Bumble Bee, while Speedy approached the dark skinned girl from behind.

“Speedy of Titan’s East, reporting in.”

A blur followed Speedy on the Titan’s East video feed. “Mas y Menos de Titans Oriente, reportando en!”

“Wildebeast, reporting in.”

“Red Star, reporting in.”

“Argent here, reporting in.”

“Bushido, reporting in.”

“Kole and Gnark, reporting in!” Came Kole’s voice.

“Hot spot, reporting in.”

Jericho’s face appeared and the soulful eyes spoke for him, claiming he was reporting in.

“Pantha, reporting in!” The female wrestler let out a yell, as a man went flying behind her.

“Melvin, Timmy, Teether and Bobby, reporting in!” Melvin’s voice came as she angled the screen as best she could to fit all four of them. It mostly worked. Bobby was too big.

“Thunder and Lightning, reporting in!” Came the ever exuberant Lightning.

“Doom Patrol, reporting in!” Mento was there, along with his group.

“Killowat, reporting in.”

“Wonder Girl, reporting in!”

“The Herald, reporting in.”

Robin eyed the screen, making sure all the honorary Titans and Titans East were there. He frowned to the three children he asked Raven to baby sit the one time. She had grown highly attached to them, and he really didn’t want to make Raven more upset by upsetting “her kids”. He looked to Cyborg with a raised brow. “Um… shut off Melvin and her gang. They don’t need to hear this.” He spoke lowly.

Cyborg looked to the leader, but nodded. Those kids were really too young to hear something like this, anyways. “Right.” He agreed and shut their communication off from the rest.

After they were cut off, Robin took a deep breath. Some of the others were talking (or arguing) with one another and Robin eyed the screen for a long moment, before he cleared his throat. Nothing. He grit his teeth and tried again. A few of them looked to him. A twitch in his hand before Robin exclaimed his throat clearing noise. They all looked to him now. “Thank you.” He spoke irritably at first before he took another breath. “I’ve called you all for a very important reason. Please keep in mind we only received this information ourselves a few hours previous.”

There were confused murmurs, and scared looks that passed through most of the faces. For some reason, Jericho’s expression only hardened. Robin eyed him for a second before the boy wonder nodded. Jericho looked down with a sorrowful expression.

“At thirteen hundred hours this afternoon, we received a video footage from Operative Beast Boy, who had been on a solo mission.” From behind Mento, Elasti-girl let out a small gasp. This was something about her baby? “The information is not completely concrete, but as of now… Beast boy will be counted as Missing in Action.” The room erupted in frantic chatter at this point.

Eventually, Gizmo let out an annoyed yell. “Will all of you Butt munching fart faced freaks let the stupid boy wonder finish?! Obviously, he’s not done!”

Robin blinked and silence reigned once more. “Er… thank you, Gizmo.” There was a mutter of ‘don’t mention it’, before Billy Numerous appeared on screen.

“Well? Come on, Tex! Don’t leave us out to die here! Fill us in!”

Robin sighed and gave a nod. “For now, we have to assume he’s only MIA. Based on the video feed though… there is another possibility.” Robin looked to the cybernetic companion. The dark skinned man nodded as he moved his fingers across the control panel again. There was a few seconds hesitation in the video at first, but it played normally. Cyborg made sure it played for everyone to see.

After the video finished, the room was once more filled with shocked silence.

Elasti-girl was the first to speak up. “I demand to know where he was sent!” Her tone was vicious.

Mento, Negative man and Robot man were surprised by their team mates’ outburst at first, but soon, Mento had to grab hold of his wife’s arm.

“If you’ll excuse us… Negative man, Robot man, listen to the rest for us.”

The two nodded and stepped up while Mento led his wife away.

Pantha was the next to speak up. “This Cinderblock he spoke of! Was that not who he was meant to be after?” The wrestler demanded. She only partially remembered who the Cinderblock was. She only met him the once, after all.

Robin sighed and gave a nod. “That’s what the locals reported in the distress call, but… Now I’m not sure.”

Once more, there was silence. After a while, Jinx let out a sigh and set her communicator to the side for a few minutes. “Kid Flash and I need to talk for a minute.” Was her excuse.

While they spoke, the Titans East gang all filed together as well. Even Aqualad and Tramm had come up to talk with them. Herald had created a portal to retrieve Jericho, Pantha and Kole along with a hesitant Gnark into his dimension, so they could also be in one place. The Hive five noticed that everyone else seemed to be taking a small break, so Gizmo only nodded to the screen, before he retreated to the others as well. The rest watched their own screens, seeming to be waiting for guidance.

They all looked like they were hoping for the kind of guidance only Robin could give. Robin didn’t honestly feel like he could offer that right now. He only sat on the couch behind him. The stress of the few hours was starting to get to him.

At the sound of the couch’s movement, Kid Flash seemed to catch it as the audio signal and he glanced from the communicator to Jinx. He finally gave the nod she had been waiting for. The pink haired girl picked up her device. “Jinx and Kid Flash, reporting back in.” Jinx spoke. “Hey Robin, we’re gonna cut our communicator off. Don’t want any of you losers getting motion sick, right?” She tossed a teasing smirk to Cyborg’s direction. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.” With that, her screen went dark.

The Herald looked to the people he had gathered and nodded to their looks. “I’m gonna round up some of the others. We’ll be here when you need us.” Herald, Jericho, Pantha, and Kole cut off their communicators.

“Call Titans East if you need us, Spark plug. Okay?” There was still a hint of teasing, but at the same time, Bumble Bee eyed Cyborg carefully before she cut off their screen.

The farewells continued as such one at a time, mostly. Some had mentioned that the Herald had come to collect them just before, but most offered their sympathies. In the end, only Doom Patrol still had their communication up.

Negative man looked between the people behind him and the screen before him. After a minute, he let out a sigh. “We’ll… let you know what they decide.” He finally spoke before the screen went completely dark.

Elsewhere, at the monks’ temple, a frantic Melvin tried to play with the communicator while Teether cried and Timmy screamed about what he wanted at that moment.

“I wanna know what happened! I wanna know what happened! I wanna know what happened!” Each time, the scream became that much louder and Melvin screwed her eyes shut for a second, before she placed a hand on the red heads’ shoulder.

“Timmy, please stop! I’m trying to call Raven! She’ll tell us!” They could always count on Raven, after all. She usually gave into a lot of stuff they asked about.

Timmy eyed her before he pouted angrily at her. He wanted to talk to Raven now! Still, he knew the blond girl was doing her best, so he decided not to start screaming about it. He was doing a lot better with his tantrum throwing, thanks to the monks. During her last visit to see them, Raven had even congratulated Timmy on that.

“Raven? Melvin calling Raven… Please come in.” Melvin tried again and frowned at the device when no reply came. “Awe… C’mon, Raven. We wanna help too… Why won’t you answer us?”

Teether seemed to sense the blond girls’ distress and started to cry more. He didn’t understand still. He was still too young to understand just why his sister figure was sad and why their Mama figure wasn’t talking to them. After a few seconds, Melvin moved to try and comfort Teether. “Hey, c’mon Teether, it’s okay. Raven’ll reply to our call at any second now!” She tried to comfort him, but no matter how much she tried, he wouldn’t calm down this time.

“Raven… we could really use your help… please respond.” Melvin tried one last time desperately.

A god two minutes later, the teen they’d been trying to call formed a portal just in front of them. Two seconds later, her cloak surrounded Melvin, Timmy, Teether and Bobby. It pulled them through and into her room. The three kids landed on her bed while Bobby landed on the floor.

“Melvin, have you practiced making Bobby smaller?” The sorceress asked.

The pig tailed girl jumped to her feet with a grin. “Of course I have! Wanna see?” She asked excitedly. When Raven nodded, Teether moved into her lap and Timmy sat on her left, one of his hands resting on one of hers. They watched as Melvin turned to the giant bear and closed her eyes tightly. Slowly, Melvin shrunk Bobby so he could fit in the room properly. He was shrunk down to as tall as Melvin herself.

Teether began to giggle and clap for her, while Raven nodded her approval. Melvin then moved to sit on Raven’s right, and Bobby sat on Melvin’s other side.

“Now… you were trying to call me quite a few times. Are you okay? Are any of you hurt?” Immediately, she started to lift Teether to check him for injuries. As she did this, she continued to speak. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. I should have responded to you the first time. I was just… I mean… I was a little…”

“No one’s hurt. We’re all okay. But…” Melvin placed her hand to Raven’s knee. “Raven…? Is everything okay?”

Raven tensed as she moved Teether to sit in her lap again. Her lips were pursed and she had a far off look on her face. Melvin squeezed her knee gently and looked to her in confusion. She had to get it together. She had to protect these kids. They were her kids. She had to protect them… “Everything’s fine.” Her tone was a bit snippier then she would have liked to use.

Melvin eyed her and shook her head. “Then why are you so frantic? And… And why did Robin call us if nothing’s wrong?”

Raven bit her lip. So… he made the call to everyone. She was going to…! No. Apparently the kids didn’t know yet. It was okay. She took a deep breath. “Someone here… got hurt.” She spoke slowly. There was no use lying to them. Melvin was too smart by now to be lied to. Too perceptive. “They got hurt really badly… The message Robin was going to speak about was just about that. That’s all.”

“Someone got hurt?” Timmy exclaimed.

“Who was it?” Melvin asked slowly.

Raven went silent again. She looked to Teether in her lap, though it felt like she was just looking through him at that moment. How could she… how in the world could she talk about something like this with just kids? They were too young to properly understand. They shouldn’t even be here in the Tower! This… this was a bad place for them.

After some time, Raven was snapped from her musing by a hand on her knee. She blinked in surprise before looking down to see Melvin looking to her sympathetically. “Was it someone important to you, Raven?”

Raven frowned to herself. When had such a young girl – who looked no older than a pre-teen – become such a bright little girl? A hand moved to ruffle through blond locks and a sad smile formed. “Yes. He was very important to me…”

The pause lasted all of five seconds before three young sets of arms wrapped around her. The three children were trying to comfort the purple haired girl as best as they could.

The empath gave a small smile at their efforts and shifted until she could hug all three in return. Later that evening, Raven called the temple the kids were supposed to be staying. She explained to them that she had taken them to the tower and asked permission from the head monk (or the abbot) if the kids could stay with her for the night. Seeing as the monks still owed Raven for successfully getting the kids to the temple, the abbot agreed and simply asked the kids to be returned in a few days at most. While Raven wasn’t completely sure this enough time for her to be with her kid, she had agreed.

The monks were their legal guardians currently, after all.

While Raven talked on the phone, Melvin had been reading a book to the boys that Raven let her use. It was a book for Pinocchio since the sorceress thought the kids would like that best out of her book collection. She didn’t have many books for kids, but ever since the night she took care of the kids, she had gone ahead and bought a few things for when she’d entertain them for a while at the tower.

After the book and her call, Raven asked the kids if they were hungry. She ordered them all pizza and when they ate, the woman put on a movie to keep them entertained. It was some Disney movies about lions, meerkats and warthogs. Raven had sort of lost interest. But it kept the three quiet, so she allowed them to continue watching. They were half way through the movie when a knock came at the door.

The empath frowned. She wasn’t expecting anyone tonight. She took a deep breath and focused on the emotions on the other side of her door. Sadness, grief, loss of something special. Nothing she suspected to be out of the ordinary for any Titan that night, or for the next few days even. She moved to rise, moving Teether from her lap and into Melvin’s.

“I’ll be right back.” She told them. “Stay here and watch the movie.”

There was a collections of “okays” from them as Raven moved to check who was at her door. When it opened to reveal Elasti-girl, Raven’s eyes widened a moment. “Elasti-girl…? What can I do for you?”

The brunette woman pursed her lips at the formality. “I don’t believe I can handle formal at the moment, Raven. Please just call me Rita.”

Raven gave a nod and glanced towards the bed where three curious sets of eyes watched them. “Right… Would you mind if we took this in the hall, Rita?”

Rita followed her gaze. As a mother – or adopted mother – herself, she could understand wanting to preserve the innocence of a child’s mind and nodded. “Of course.”

Raven stepped out of her bedroom and the door slid shut behind her. Rita stepped back enough to give the empath more space. It took a few moments, but Rita spoke up first. “I… know this must be a surprise. I’ve not visited the Titans often. In fact, I’ve only visited two other times.” She began, her gaze lingering on the floor between them. The two times she had visited had only been for holiday events and even then, her husband had pulled them away early for mission alerts. Crime never sleeps, after all. Even on a holiday, as it would seem. “I do wish it could have been more often, but…” A sigh escaped. “I’m getting off track.”

She looked to meet Raven’s gaze now. Brown met violet and the look in Rita’s eyes… it was enough to break Raven’s heart all over again.

“You knew him best. You two were… closest, from what I could gather.” A sad, but approving smile crossed the adopted mothers’ lips. “I was wondering if we might… Well… exchange stories, if you will?”

Raven seemed to hesitate. While she would like nothing more than to exchange the good times with Garfield’s mother, she had the feeling it would only hurt. It seemed too soon. Her lips pursed as she did consider the thought. “I… I’m sorry, Rita.” She began to apologize. “If it wasn’t so soon… I’d be happy to, but…”

Rita held up a gloved hand. A sad, mirthful smile crossed her lips. “It’s alright. I understand. I apologize and hope we can try this another time.”

Raven nodded and paused as she glanced towards her bedroom door. “The kids might be nervous about it at first, but would you care to join us? We’re watching The Lion King at the moment. Timmy’s choice.”

Rita’s smile seemed a little less sad this time as she gave a nod. “That sounds wonderful. Thank you, Raven.”

Raven simply gave another nod before she turned and entered her room again. “Melvin, Timmy, Teether… I’d like you to meet Rita Dayton (1). She… is Beast Boy’s mother.”

Rita followed Raven in and smiled sympathetically to the children. “Hello, little ones.”

The kids ended up losing interest in the movie and Raven paused and turned it off when she noticed this. They were more interested in asking Rita all kinds of questions. Things like why Rita wasn’t green like the changeling, and if she could change forms like Beast Boy could and such. The night continued with random trivia questions like that until Raven deemed it time for the kids to go to sleep. While they did complain at first, they did comply and Raven made sure they brushed their teeth and made it work before she would let them lay on her bed.

Just before she drifted off to sleep, Melvin reached out to grab the bottom of Raven’s leotard. “You’ll sleep with us tonight, right Raven…?” Melvin always would ask this, and she would always receive the same answer from the empath.

A sympathetic smile and a hair ruffle. “Of course I will. Now go to sleep, okay?” And Melvin would do so, assured that Raven would join them in their cuddle sleep session.