Ever After

Chapter 1

That was it, it was over that quickly. In a flash Starfire had vanished into the warp hole never to be seen again. Again. For a few moments if felt as though time had hiccuped and stopped and the question of "what now?" hung heavy in the air. Before another word could be uttered by the four sentinent adults, baby Warp cried out.

Beastboy stared at the infant in a mix between horror and bewilderment. He wouldn't know what to do if Warp had the ability to speak out directions.

At everyone's hesitancy Cyborg spoke up. "He needs a human touch." His face was blank as he referred to his robotic limbs. If he'd thought them unsuitable before, now that they were near obsolete he felt there was no point.

The infant continued to scream when Beastboy chimed in again, "I don't know man, what if he's still evil? What if even in that tiny body he still remembers everything?"

Nightwing gave him a look but Beastboy insisted, "What? I could be true!"

Nightwing resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead chanced a glance at Raven. The sorceress tilted her chin down, her ameythist eyes hiding deeper in the shadows of her hood. The hurt radiated off of her in waves. Nightwing felt uncomfortable. He knew his former teammates hadn't been doing well, it was painfully obvious. What he'd forgetten was how strong that mind meld bond was. This was fucking depressing.

With a sigh and a great deal of uncertainty he bent down and picked up the screaming baby and wrapped him up in Warps discarded suit and stared down at the babe's eyes. The child stopped bawling and was looking up into Nightwing's masked eyes. The hero was uneasy all over again.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of ya'll but I've gotta head back. This battery pack won't last forever." Cyborg didn't wait for a reply, he just turned and began walking off. He paused at the door, not bothering to turn and face them, "If you guys need anything, you know where to find me. Maybe I'll finally catch up to all this new tech." With that he was gone. It had been so many years that no one knew what to say, so nothing was spoken.

Raven looked at Beastboy for a moment. Between him and Cyborg she wasn't sure who'd had a harder time, she certainly was barely even processing the current moment herself. The changeling looked far older than his years but somehow that and Cyborg's state of disrepair helped to solidify these current events as reality in her mind. Time had passed, things had changed and reality been unkind. Her eyes moved to Nightwing and of the four he was the only one who seemed to be doing alright, well even.

Her solemn sadness quickly turned to anger. The sting of betrayal from her friends still cut deep. Her battles with demons nearly drove her insane and she fought for that sanity every day. It was time to go. Her eyes flashed white and her dark aura rose high above her before coming down and swallowing her away.

And then there were two. Nightwing inhaled, unsure of what to say at this point. "So... do you think you could help me with this kid? At least just until I can get him to the proper authorities to get care?"

Beastboy scratched the back of his head still feeling self-concious about his balding appearance. "I, uh... I actually can't. I've gotta work. Not all of us are heros anymore. Later."

He transformed into a bat and flew out.

Nightwing let out a sigh feeling more down than he had in a long time. How did all of this suddenly feel like it was his fault. He gave the baby a sideway glance. "Guess it's time to figure out what to do with you."

End Chapter 1

I just wanted to say that I've taken some pretty big liberties with the timeline here. Technically this takes place right where the episode, "How Long is Forever?" but events in episodes after that one are presumed to have already happened. "Haunted" being the main one. I know this is short, but it's more of an intro than anything. Enjoy!