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It had been a very slow week for the Titans. No supervillains to fight, their usual opponents like the Hive-5 or Mumbo Jumbo were nowhere to be found. Slade had been sighted in Metropolis, which meant that the Justice League was dealing with him. Even run of the mill crime was slow, so slow that the crime alert had been silent for days.
The Titans were each in their own way taking advantage of the down time to do what they liked best.
Robin was working out in the gym, practicing some new moves the True Master had sent his way. They were difficult to do; but Robin was determined to master them, as he knew they would come in handy some day. Plus these were moves that Bruce didn't know, or at least that's what Master Chu Hui had told him, which was the incentive he needed.
Starfire was at the new Galleria Mall in downtown Jump, armed with a new credit card that Galfore had somehow arranged for her, one with a seemingly endless credit limit, and which he paid off every month. She was embodying the term "shop till you drop", and who could blame her? There were so many cute outfits to try on and maybe buy. She tried to get Raven to go with her, but that proved to be an exercise in futility.
Cyborg, of course, was busy upgrading the T-Car: a more powerful engine, a bigger stereo, a flashier paint job and massaging seats. When he showed his plans to Raven, hoping that she would volunteer to help him, she instead rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath "boys".
Beast Boy took advantage of the hiatus to catch up on his "reading", which he had fallen behind. He finished reading the latest issue of Captain Carrot, and after tossing it aside he reached for his pile of new comic books, only to discover that he had read them all. He was resting on his lower bunk and sat up.
"OK, what do I do now?" He asked himself.
He thought of seeing how Robin's exercise in obsession was going, but decided not to, as Robin might make the changeling train with him.
Starfire was at the mall. If he joined her she would make him watch as she modeled every outfit she could find. Nope, that wasn't going to happen.
Cyborg? The Tin Man already warned him to stay away from the garage while he worked on the T-Car, under pain of death. Pfft! As if he wanted to turn some stupid wrenches.
That left Raven, who was … wait a minute … what was she doing? She hadn't told anyone what she was up to. She would show up for meals, which she ate in silence and after which she would excuse herself and go back to her room. The other four speculated what she was doing, but no one knew.
A mischievous grin appeared on Gar's face.
"It's time I find out what she's been doing." He whispered to himself as he bolted out of his messy room.
With the stealth of a cat he ran down the hallway, until he was at her door. He pressed one of his pointy ears against the door and heard some movement inside. She then heard her voice uttering some weird incantation.
"So she's doing magic … I need to check this out." It was a bad idea, but since when did that ever stop him?
He morphed into an ant and crawled under her door. What he saw would have made him laugh, if ants could laugh, which they can't. She was standing in front of a very stereotypical cauldron with a fire lit under it. There was a small table covered with jars and vials with contents that smelled strange and otherworldly. And to complete the scene there was a large ancient book resting on a stand.
Raven grabbed one of the vials from which she poured a few drops into the cauldron, while she chanted in a creepy sounding language. Beast Boy was getting curious. Just what was she doing? She grabbed a small jar then double checked the book. She whispered to herself: "and finally, half a teaspoon of ground demons horn".
It was at that moment the changeling decided to resume his human form, and wound up standing right behind her.
"Watcha doin', Raven?" He blurted out, startling the gray sorceress, who accidentally dumped the entire jar of demon's horn into that cauldron.
She spun around and gave him her best four eyed glare.
"Beast Boy! What have I said about you sneaking into my room?"
He grinned sheepishly. "Uh … that I shouldn't do it?"
"Yes, you idiot! Now you made me ruin my experiment!"
"Uh, sorry?"
"Why didn't you knock first?"
"Because you would have told me to go away." He replied as he leaned over and looked into her cauldron. "So what are you doing?"
"If you must know I was trying to contact my counterpart in a parallel universe."
He marveled at her statement. "You can do that?"
She huffed at him. "I was about to find out when you barged in here like a bull in a china shop."
"What's a China shop? Is it a shop where you buy stuff from China, you know like at Jump Mart or Bullseye?"
She face palmed. "Oh never mind. Just go away so I can start over."
Just as she dismissed him her cauldron began to rumble. She suddenly looked panic stricken.
"Uh, Raven, is your pot supposed to do that?"
Before she could answer a black whirlwind formed in the pot.
"Dude!" He shouted as he pointed at the growing tornado.
Raven grabbed his arm and shouted. "We need to get out of here!" But she was too late as they were both engulfed by it and were sucked into the cauldron as they both shrieked in terror. They spun faster and faster until they both blacked out.
-(-)-
Raven regained consciousness first and sighed in relief when she saw they were still in her room. His supine form lay next to her and she shook him.
"Gar, are you OK?"
"I think so, but I have a headache." He replied as he looked around. They were definitely in her room, and the cauldron, now still and silent was there too.
"So do I. Cyborg keeps aspirin in the infirmary."
He nodded his understanding and they both headed for the door.
"You have no idea how lucky we are. This could have been a disaster."
Before they reached the door it slid open. Standing at the other side were a young man and woman, about their age. The male was wearing a Doom Patrol outfit like his and she was dressed just like Raven: black leotard, blue cape and boots. But that was where the resemblance ended, because both of them were blond and had Caucasian skin. Gar pointed at the blond stranger, who actually looked just like him, but without the green skin or pointed ears, the other male pointed back at him and they shouted "Dude!" in unison.
Raven looked at her blond twin and face palmed.
"This wasn't supposed to happen."
"Were you trying to contact me? Because I was going to try the same thing." Her twin asked.
"I was, until Gar made me make a mistake."
"Hey, I said I was sorry."
"You put in too much demon's horn."
Raven nodded before replying. "I'm Raven Roth and this is Garfield Logan"
"Same." The blond replied in Raven's gravelly monotone.
Gar sized up his twin. "Dude why aren't you green? Didn't the green monkey bite you?"
"Yeah, it did. Why are you green?"
"Duh! The serum mom and dad gave me. It saved me, but I stayed green ."
"It didn't turn me green, or give me freaky pointy ears."
"Don't you dare make fun of his ears!" Raven barked at the blond changeling, before turning to her twin. "And I don't know why we are different."
The blond sorceress frowned. "Did you read about dimension crossing in the spell book?"
"No, I didn't get that far." Raven replied.
"Well I did. Your presence here causes imbalances."
"What kind of imbalances?" Beast Boy asked.
"Cosmic imbalances. It would start with minor things like storms, then escalate to bigger things. If you stay here long enough the sun could explode. We need to send you back, the sooner the better." She turned to her Beau. "Go and tell the others what happened while I set up here. They need to know in case we have trouble sending them home."
"Sure thing, mama." He replied as he wrapped an arm around her waist, drew her in and kissed her.
Raven appeared to become catatonic while Gar looked pleasantly surprised.
"What are you doing!?" Raven shouted at her twin.
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm kissing my boyfriend."
"No way, dudes, you can't be a couple."
They rolled their eyes before exchanging fiery kisses. After smooching for almost a minute, they paused.
"Are you convinced now? And does this mean you aren't a couple?"
Raven heaved a huge sigh. "Correct, we aren't a couple. And instead of focusing on that, how about we work on getting us home instead?"
-(-)-
The other three Titans appeared unchanged from the ones back home, which was a small relief for Raven. A blond Starfire would have been disturbing beyond words. Local Raven had the same spell book as Raven, and they both studied it carefully before agreeing on a spell that would send them home. As the two sorceresses worked together, Beast Boy noticed that the other local Titans were staring at him.
"Yeah, I know, I'm a green freak." He grumbled.
"You are not a freak." Raven corrected him while she continued to work on the complex spell.
Local Robin apologized. "Sorry we're staring. But it's not just because you are green. You are also just like our Beast Boy in nearly every way."
"It's cool, bro. I get it."
Raven cleared her throat. "Raven and I ready to start the spell."
Gar smiled. "That's awesome Rave, but before we go I need to do something."
"Use the toilet?" She deadpanned.
"Nah, I already went. I'm talking about some selfies." He said as he wedged himself between his counterparts and using his Titans communicator he snapped away.
"Are you done, Beast Boy?"
"All done."
The Ravens looked at each other. "Ready?" the both asked each other.
The spell was tedious to prepare as before, with some variations to account for it returning them home. After about twenty minutes blond Raven had the final ingredient in her hand.
"This is it. Time to go home."
Raven looked back at her. "Thank you for your help. I wish we could have stayed longer."
"I understand. That said, we can still stay in touch."
"We will, and thank you, sister."
Blond Raven smiled at the remark.
"OK, this is it, once I drop this into a cauldron a vortex will appear. Step into to and you will be sent home."
"We're ready."
Blond Raven dropped the final ingredient into the cauldron, and as predicted a vortex appeared.
"Good bye guys, nice to meet you!" Gar shouted as he stepped into the vortex. Raven waved farewell and followed him in.
-(-)-
The trip home was less intense, mostly because the spell ingredients were more carefully measured, and when they calmly stepped out of the vortex they saw they were in Raven's room again. Beast Boy looked around nervously.
"What's the matter?" She asked him.
"This looks like your room, but is it really your room?"
Raven saw the jar of ground demon's horn she had dropped and picked it up. After examining it she furrowed her brow. "Yup, we're home."
Gar visibly relaxed and without thinking sat down on her bed. She was about to tell him that no one touches her bed, but for some reason she let it slide and instead sat down next to him.
"May I see the pictures you took?"
"Sure, I'll forward them to you."
Raven's communicator chirped and she opened it. She looked at the first picture, which was Gar wedged between their counter parts, who now seemed to be so far away. Raven focused on her blond, non gray counterpart. She didn't notice it before, but the blond girl looked to soft and friendly, more feminine than she ever felt. Gar's blond counterpart looked incomplete to her. It was the ears.
"So what do you think?" He asked her.
"It's hard to say. They are so much like us and yet also different and I'm not just talking about their color."
"Plus they liked to kiss … a lot."
Raven stared at the wall. "Yeah, and they seemed to enjoy it." She replied before turning to face him. "You've kissed a girl before, right? You kissed Terra back in the day."
He slowly shook his head "I've never kissed a girl." He answered while making an L on his forehead with his fingers. Raven swatted it down.
"You're not a loser, and for the record, I have never kissed a boy."
"So we're both kissing virgins." He blurted.
"I suppose that we are."
They fell silent for a while, until she thought she saw a tiny smile form on his face.
"You were experimenting earlier."
"Yes, with my cauldron. What about it?"
"How about we try a different experiment?"
She frowned. "You want us to kiss? That's your experiment?"
He grinned. "Why not? They seemed to enjoy it."
"We are not them. We might look like them but we are different."
"And yet, she enjoyed kissing him. Aren't you even a little curious?"
Raven didn't answer immediately. Gar waited patiently for her answer even though the wait was driving him insane.
"That's what you said to get me to dress up like Robin … which was kind of fun …OK, I'll go along with this, but under my conditions: Just one kiss, no slobbering and don't you dare stick your tongue in my mouth, understood?"
"Got it. And of course I won't French you, I don't have a clue on how it's done. So … when do we try our experiment?"
Raven sighed. "Let's just get it done and over with."
The green and Gray Titans awkwardly approaching each other, unsure of how to tilt their head, when to pucker up, or any of the many nuances of the fine art of kissing. They were both blushing profusely as they struggled with the mechanics of the act. After navigating through what felt like a minefield their lips finally touched and to their mutual surprise it was quite pleasant and they remained lip locked for several seconds. After separating, he smiled first.
"Hey, that was awesome."
She smiled sheepishly and nodded her head.
"Well, I guess our experiment is over." He said in a sad voice.
"I say we try again, to improve our technique and to gather more data for the experiment. You in?" She said in a whisper
"I'm in."
-(-)-
Starfire has just returned from the mall with many packages and was dying to model them for Raven, even if the sorceress wasn't interested. The Princess had an unspoken goal of teaching Raven to be civilized when it came to dressing well. She reached Raven's door and entered without knocking. As she entered, an unexpected, though welcome sight greeted her: Raven and Gar were engaged in an all out make out session. Without even turning around the Tamaranian quietly backed out of the room so as not to spoil the moment. Once out and the door slid shut she grinned. A single word formed in her mind:
Glorious.