"Jericho?"
"Dude, when did you get here?" Beast Boy grinned excitedly, rushing over to greet his silent friend. It had taken awhile for him to warm up to Jericho, not being able to read sign language was a big barrier for the talkative green titan. But Jericho was easy to understand if you really listened and paid attention to his little quirks and facial expressions. He didn't need words to communicate. "I thought you were still in Europe!"
He shook his head and pointed at one of the computer terminals, the page was from the Titans database of criminals, Slade's file currently taking up the full page.
"Your actually choosing to do homework?" Beast Boy scrunched up his face in disgust. There was a reason that he wasn't responsible for typing up the mission debriefings, Cyborg or Robin always helped him when he needed to tell his part of what happened.
Jericho rolled his eyes before turning back to the console and pulling up some local newspaper articles onto the big screen so they could see what he'd been looking into. The screen was instantly filled with news reports, claiming that Slade had been spotted around Jump recently.
"That shouldn't be there." Rose frowned, removing her mask before walking over to the screen to read one of the articles better. "I thought I disabled all the cameras."
Jericho hadn't noticed the girl at first. But now he was staring at her, looking her up and down, taking in her full appearance. Looking confused, he turned to Robin for answers. He didn't recognise her from any of the houndary titans, and he was sure he hadn't seen her in any of the villain files before.
"This is Rose, she's thinking of joining the Titans." Robin explained, answering Jericho's unasked questions. But he was keeping a close eye on her nonetheless. "She's the one behind all the recent Slade sightings."
He nodded, a little disappointed that the reports had been wrong, but he couldn't let them know why. Rose's costume was a good copy of Slade's, black and grey with plenty of armour, it was easy to see how they could be confused on the poor security feeds. Picking up her duo coloured mask, he still looked confused, but curious as well. Tilting his head to the side, his eyes silently asking them why.
"Our new friend, is the daughter of Slade." Starfire's eyes suddenly lit up as she seemed to realise something. "I must be making the custom Tamaranian meal of friendship!" With that she flew off towards the kitchen, leaving behind four protesting Titans.
Jericho hardly seemed to notice Starfire leaving, he was staring wide eyed at Rose who had turned around to see what all the shouting was about. But Jericho was now focused on her face, unfamiliar, but the familiar steel grey eyes were enough for him to know. This girl was definitely Slade's daughter, but how?
"What are you staring at Blondie?" Rose noticed how intensely she was being studied. He was just staring, just staring and hadn't spoken a word since she'd arrived. "You don't talk much do you?"
"Jeri can't speak." Beastboy shrugged, jumping over the sofa and looking between the two of them. "He's mute. You get used to the staring though, it's kind of his thing."
"Jeri?" Rose looked confused for a moment, trying to place who the unfamiliar boy was. She'd done her research on the titans, but this wasn't one of the ones who'd battled with her father. It took a while for her to connect the name 'Jeri' to one of the newer titans "Jericho right? You know, you look kinda familiar, do I know you?"
He shook his head a little too quickly before turning away so she didn't get a good look at him, taking a slight step back before getting back to the console again to carry on his research.
"Is that my fathers file?" She pushed him out of the way to sit down in front of the monitor and scroll though the information they had on Slade.
"Hey!" Beast boy half growled spinning Rose's chair back around to face him. "Just 'cause you're not trying to take over from you dad anymore, doesn't mean you can push my friends around like that."
Jericho placed a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder and shook his head with an understanding smile, he didn't mind, it wasn't worth getting into a fight over it.
"What?" Rose look confused for a second before turning to Jericho. "Oh! Sorry. I lost track of my father a while ago, The Titans might know what happened to him. You'd do the same thing if it was your dad wouldn't you?"
Jericho smiled awkwardly, casting a slightly nervous glance at the screen before nodding again. He understood more than she realised.
"What do you plan to do if you do manage to find your father?" Robin's voice was stern but not hostile. He had his own score to settle with Slade, but Rose was the man's daughter, she might be swayed into turning against them like Terra was. He had said he had a good feeling about Rose, but he wasn't naive enough to trust her blindly.
"I don't know." Rose admitted quietly. Turning back to the console, the screen filled with a photo of Slade. "I just want a chance to talk to my father... My whole life I was trained to be just like him. I don't even know if he's alive."
"It's been over a year since he was last seen." Robin's voice was clear, but he was being careful, not wanting to outright tell her that her father might be dead. "He might be laying low, rebuilding his army."
"I don't know man, he got beat down pretty badly after what happened with Trigon." Cyborg pointed out. "Maybe he up and retired." he was only half joking. Slade hadn't really shown his face after he helped them defeat Trigon, he got his life back and disappeared. They'd seen his commando robots a handful of times since then, but not Slade directly, it's like he'd lost interest in being a villain, or just lost interest in them.
"Do you mind if I look through my dad's file on my own? I might be able to find something you missed." There was a lot for her to look through, and she didn't like how they were all surrounding her, watching her. She didn't expect them to trust her. Honestly she was surprised they even let her into their tower knowing who she was.
"No offence, but we don't know you enough to leave you alone with our computer systems." Cyborg built most of that system, he knew a hundred ways it could be hacked or corrupted that would take a long time to recover from. Robin might have a good feeling about her, but Cyborg wasn't too trusting.
"Yeah. How do we know you aren't some kind of mole for your father?!" Beast boy didn't trust her. Terra had been a lost girl who needed help, she was tricked into turning against them because they failed her. But Rose wasn't naive or in need of a friend, and she openly talked about Slade as if he wasn't a dangerous villain. If she found Slade, beast boy wasn't so confident that she'd choose them over her own father.
Not one saw Jericho wince at the accusing tone in beast boys voice. But he waved his hand to get Robin's attention, before pointing to his temple and bringing his fists together, one on top of another, nodding at Rose with a smile. He was usually a good judge of character, he understood body language and facial expressions better than anyone, people could lie with their words, but their bodies usually betrayed them.
"Jericho trusts her." Robin translated, seeming to think about it for a second. "But Cyborgs right, we can't trust someone we just met." He watched Jericho point first to himself, and then to Rose with another nod, this time more insistent. "You'll stay and watch her?"
"Since when did you have such an interest in Slade?" Ravens stoic voice cut in, looking over the news articles that Jericho had been looking into with Slade's file, before turning to the surprised honorary titan.
Jericho just gestured to the big screen and then to Rose. He heard one for their biggest enemies had returned, and it turned out to be this girl, was it so hard to believe that he was simply curious?
Raven didn't seem to know what to say. She sensed something change in Jericho, but didn't know what it was or why. Her narrowed eyes seemed to be trying to see through him, to see if he was hiding something from them. Jericho might be good at reading body language, but Raven understood emotions, and something about the mute titan seemed off since he found out who Rose was.
"Can i just get some stuff printed out to look over?" Rose commented, trying to break the silence.
"I have most of it printed out in my room. C'mon I'll show you." Robin agreed, feeling the tension in the room. He didn't want to know what was going on. It was an innocent question from Raven, but something felt off about how both her and Jericho had interacted. The two of them seemed to be getting on well when Jericho joined them, so why did it become so awkward all of a sudden because of Rose?