A/N:

I wish there were some sort of scheduled planning to my updates, but it's really just the amount of time I have available paired with my sometimes flowing, sometimes stalled creative juices. Anyway, thank you again to all of you following this story, and I appreciate all of my reviewers and their wonderful feedback. Special, special thanks to:

Monstrous Wonder: That's very kind of you! I love experimenting with grown up Titans and I'm glad you think I'm doing a good job!

The Cretin: Ah! I really, really, really, really appreciate that you take the time to review every chapter! Especially since you are working on top of that! That must be tough! I am lucky enough to be in between summer and internship time, so I have plenty of free time...but I applaud you for giving each chapter such a nice review on such a busy schedule. Thank you!

cole763: I'm so happy you like my style of writing! I'm even happier that I have seemed to develop a style at all! Thank you!

Hebi R: Glad I could convert you to this wonderful fandom! It's worth it, I swear!

Katwizzle: I have updated! Hopefully the next update will be decently as fast as well. I'm in a good place with this story, but I hope you don't mind the end of this chapter either...

LobsterMobster95: Your review really made me smile! I'm glad you like the little parts from the comics I have added, and I can promise Jinx will eventually make an appearance. When that happens exactly, I'm not so sure, so you'll just have to keep reading :)

Thanks all of you! And please keep reviewing! It's wonderful to hear from you.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, the Justice League, or anything associated with DC comics.


Chapter 5: Just Teammates

Raven recognized it instantly and took the opportunity to leave the guest bedroom. She went back into the living room where Vic was holding up Gar's black tuxedo pants. As awful as it was to think, she was extremely grateful for the interruption since her mind was currently berating herself for ever backing into that corner.

Do you mean to incite him?

She didn't know. Perhaps she was curious or angry or...something. A trip to Nevermore was definitely needed, but the Titans communicator left no time open for that one. Vic gave her a stern glare and then tossed Gar's communicator into her hands. "I'm getting mine. It's in my room. Yours?"

"The Watchtower." Raven ignored her slight guilt for not dragging the communicator along. Not carrying it would have been considered a sin two years ago, but she hadn't touched it since she made it to space. "Garfield should be..."

"Right here." Gar pulled up the elastic band from his sweatpants and held out his hand. "Raven?"

She handed him the yellow device and sat on the couch, cross legged. Raven watched as he flipped it open and his green eyes narrowed together in focus. Gar's mouth dropped, "Star..."

"BEAST BOY!"

The familiar voice drove Raven up from her seat and made her lean over Gar's shoulder. Is it really her? Her eyes didn't lie. There, on the small communicator screen, sat a gleaming face. Starfire was practically shaking with happiness, and Raven felt the full force of her emotion practically hit her in the head.

"AND RAVEN!" A pause. More blinks. "Why are you two in the same location? And in such a cosmopolitan space as well. Please friends, tell me. Have I interrupted something of great importance that old Robin has said would never happen but I have insisted would occur?"

"Um, no." Raven was glad the words came out in such a rush. It made it easier to ignore them. "I had JLA business with Star Labs and met up with Victor. Garfield was visiting him."

"Hey, Star." Vic came back into the room, his own communicator opening. Starfire blinked, and Raven saw Gar's own screen split to reveal the other two Titans on the line. "It's great to talk to you. Don't tell me you're back on Earth?"

She nodded, "Why yes. I am."

"Really? That's great!" Gar said immediately, excitement overwhelming Raven when combined with Starfire's own feelings. Raven shut of her empathy immediately, chagrined. He had not felt that way when he had seen her again. And what do you care about that?

Victor sat on the couch, a little more skeptical though happy as well. "Where are you?"

"In Gotham."

That wouldn't have surprised anyone if they hadn't heard what happened the night before Raven had left, if all of the details of her and the Boy Wonder's relationship hadn't been brought out to public. They once thought that Starfire and Robin had broken up out of necessity. They were both homesick and both needed to go to places very, very far away. Distance was a bitch, and both of them had too many responsibilities to worry about little things like love.

Well, at least that's what they thought before.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that when they wouldn't even go into the same room together the next day that something deeper was wrong. And even Mammoth could figure out that the way Starfire slurred the name Robin that this was fundamentally a trust issue.

Raven had never been happier to leave the Tower than the moment when Starfire had asked what kind of shellac Robin used to keep his mask on. And seeing the silence of her former teammates, she realized they were all thinking the same thing. The empath broke the mood. "Oh."

"Yes, well...I knew I could find one of you there."

"You could have called us before, Star." Gar sounded restrained. Raven sensed a growl hidden in his throat. "You didn't have to go see..."

"I wanted to, Beast Boy." Starfire interrupted. "Nightwing has not been anything but kind, but I must insist that you all come here."

"Is something wrong?" Raven asked. The mood in the Tamaranean dipped significantly, answering her question. "What happened, Starfire? Why are you here?"

The orange haired girl sighed, "It is something I wish to discuss with all of you together. I doubt I could repeat it many more times." Suddenly, Starfire's head whipped to the side and she fell into the whisper. "I believe Raven knows the location to Batman's Cavern of the dark and gloomy, yes?"

Raven didn't say anything. She had known its location years before she met the man.

Starfire nodded, "Then please, come. Nightwing does not know I have asked this of you. But..." she paused and glanced down. "It would mean so much for me to have my friends with me right now. You...you do not understand what has happened and I..." Her grip on the edge of the black table strengthened. "I am not prepared to face this alone. I have to go though. The smaller Robin will be returning. Goodbye."

Half the screen went to black, and soon Victor's side also turned off. The half-robotic man soon looked to his friends in real time, "Well, hope you don't have a series of missions, Raven."

"Actually, I do. I need to get this report in to the JLA and..."

"Can't you just give that to Kid Flash?" Gar was pissed. His green eyes gripped at her. "Starfire asked us to come. She's our friend. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"It does. Of course it does." Raven could feel how much the Tamaranean was hurting. Something awful had happened to her, but could Raven just ignore her responsibilities, drop everything just to calm her? Yes, I can. I should. She knew that if there were ever a time, Starfire would do the same for her. "Fine. I'll call Wally. He still hasn't checked in and then I can teleport us all to the Bat Cave."

"Cool." Vic patted her on the shoulder. "Thanks, Raven."

"Garfield's right." Her purple eyes trailed to the shape shifter for a brief second. "She's my friend. And something terrible has happened to her."

Gar sighed, "That bad?"

"Probably worse than what you're thinking. Her emotions are even more diluted through the communicator. And with her excitement with seeing us again..." Raven closed her eyes. What's going on? This was too much of a coincidence. "Let me call Wally now. We should get there as quickly as possible."

Her phone was connected to her hip, and she flipped the black mobile open before dialing Wally's private line. She waited patiently and eventually moved into the guest room and shut the door. "Flash..."

Raven sat on the bed, worry lining her face. She had been partners with the Flash for almost a year now, and he was never slow to respond. Her heart was panicking from the dragged out dial tone, and Raven's fingers immediately went to her ear piece. "Superman?"

"Wrong guy."

She cursed to herself. Though she would have normally preferred speaking to the Dark Knight, especially when it came to locating JLA members via technological equipment, considering where she was heading to in about ten minutes, Batman probably wasn't the best option.

Raven didn't let it bother her. "Hello, Batman."

"Don't tell me Wally is hitting on you again. I don't really feel like conducting another sexual harassment seminar here."

Raven stifled a chuckle. She could picture the Dark Knight groaning underneath his cowl. "No, nothing like that. He hasn't checked in with me in a while."

"Why are you two separated?"

"Batman..."

"I'm tracking your location."

Her eye twitched. No wonder Robin had quit Gotham to go to California. The only reason he could probably deal with it now was because half the time Batman was up in space anyway. "Fine."

"765 Freeview Avenue. That's..."

"Victor Stone's apartment, yes. I met up with an old friend."

"An abandoned your partner in the process."

"Victor Stone, aka Cyborg, was a former Titan."Raven didn't feel like she needed to explain this. "It is JLA protocol to explicitly interview all former superheroes when they witness a crime."

Batman paused, "And why didn't you interview him on scene?"

"Garfield Logan." Raven coughed, "aka Beast Boy was also present. He had already returned to Stone's apartment before I had a chance to interview him. I tracked him back to this location."

"How diligent of you," Batman sniffed.

"Wally claimed he could handle tracking Red X. I should have known better."

There was another long pause. Batman's fingers clicked on the keyboard on the other end. "I can't track him."

Raven groaned, "Figures."

"His tracker is currently malfunctioning. Last update was received at 97 Applegate Avenue. I'll send the coordinates to your phone."

"I'll teleport there. No problem. Thank you."

"Raven."

She half wanted to cut off the Bat right now. "What?"

"Bring someone with you. If Beast Boy and Cyborg couldn't stop Red X, and the Flash didn't have time to call you in for help, there could be something really wrong going on there."

"Have any backup available?"

"No." Batman sounded dissatisfied and...Was that hesitant? "There was an issue out in space. Much of the league is out doing damage control."

Raven wanted to push him, though she knew she probably wouldn't get any sort of answer. It was worth a try though. "Anything I should know about?"

"Not yet."

"You really need to stop saying that." She had yet to forget his avoidance of another topic before. But that was Batman- a series of mind games until he decided you should know something. Raven never did like to play those sorts of things. She just wanted it straight.

"I sent the coordinates. Bring Beast Boy and Cyborg with you. I always thought Nightwing did an okay job with your team."

Okay? That was as much as a compliment as Raven would ever hear from him. "Right, Raven out."

Gar immediately went up to her as she came out of the door. She hadn't bothered to lower her voice; she had thought the walls were thick enough, but then she looked to his slightly pointed ears and remembered that he wasn't completely human. His words suggested that he hadn't heard though. "Is he alright?"

"He isn't responding." Raven's tone was even though her friends stiffened at the comment. They were heroes once too, and they understood the implications of a comrade being unresponsive. He could have been injured, possibly dead. Raven didn't let her thoughts slip to that however. "I talked to Batman and he tracked Flash's last location for me. He suggested you two accompany me."

"Yeah, agreed." Gar nodded and slipped the yellow communicator into his sweatpants' pocket. Where to?"

"Hold up a sec, what about Star?"

Raven shook her head at Vic's question. "Starfire isn't in any immediate danger. Wally could be."

"Yeah, but she's left alone with Nightwing." Gar half laughed. "That may be WWIII right there."

Raven doubted that much, but she understood their point. Starfire did want them their immediately, and she did sound extremely shaken. But she wasn't dead. "I have a duty to my partner."

"Fine." Gar said, surprising both Raven and Cyborg. "We'll go get him then."

Raven didn't miss a beat, "We?"

"Vic can go meet up with Star in Gotham. I'll help save Wally and you can teleport us there later."

Victor seemed hesitant about the idea too. "You sure you're up to it?"

"If you mean that tired thing, I'll just grab an espresso on the way. No worries, Dude."

"That's not what I mean."

She watched Gar straighten at the comment, but he didn't say anymore to him. Instead, the changeling looked to Raven, and Raven felt her own body tighten under his gaze. "Look, Rave. I agree with Batman. You need backup, and if the JLA can't give you it, I certainly can. Sort of have experience in the whole superhero field if you guys remember. Vic can go to Star. He still has the T-Car somewhere. And when we're all done with Flash you can teleport us to Gotham. Easy as beating Mega Monkeys Four on Noob Mode."

Though she didn't necessarily understand the analogy, Raven agreed with Gar. Rex X shouldn't have been that big of a problem, but Wally's lack of communication was worrying her. Plus, she had worked with Gar alone, and they both knew how each other operated. And they wouldn't be alone for more than a couple of hours. Even though Raven felt an impending awkwardness with being alone with Garfield Logan, her rationality overpowered her. "Fine. Let's get going then."

"One tiny problem with that."

Gar looked to Victor, who was uncomfortably staring at the changeling's lower half. "Um, what?"

"You don't have a uniform."

Raven paled. That could be a problem. The green man laughed and then crossed his arms, suddenly defensive. "Dude, it's not a tiny problem at all."

The empath groaned and looked at the coordinates on her phone again. What am I getting into? An idea popped in her brain and Raven touched her finger to her ear again. "Hello again, Batman."

She ignored her former teammates' confusion and continued talking. "Garfield doesn't have a uniform...Yes I know. That's why I'm calling." Raven rolled her eyes. "Thanks. Raven out." She turned to Gar, "I've got your old one coming."

He blinked, "You do?"

"JLA has them in its Earth base. In the museum section."

Victor laughed, "Oh right. Forgot about that. I remember when we first visited that thing...a whole Titan's wing..."

"It should be here in 5,4,3,2..."

Raven stopped talking, slightly off by a second as a purple and black uniform and shoes materialized on the floor. Victor was practically squealing with giddiness. "A teleportation machine! The JLA just has all the toys, doesn't it? The one at Star takes at least a couple of hours just to power up!"

Gar moved to grab his uniform off the floor, checking for any holes. When he was satisfied, he simply shrugged, "Sort of less impressive when you know a girl who can teleport on demand. Be back." He moved from the room, uniform in hand, and closed the door to the guest bedroom.

She practically fell over when Vic nudged her with his elbow. "Please, stop."

"Someone jumped at the chance to help you out."

This again? Raven never went to high school, but if she did, she imagined it would have been very similar to this. Vic was surprisingly recalcitrant that something had happened when her and Gar had left the lounge by themselves two years ago, but seriously, that was two years ago. Not only was Raven surprised he remembered the event so well, she was also shocked that he was so intuitive. "Like I said..."

"You have someone else. It wouldn't be Flash would it?"

Her cheeks reddened. These were the moments she still wished she was connected to her father. Okay, maybe not that, but still. She wished she was a little better at hiding her emotions. "This isn't important. I'm sending the Bat Cave's coordinates to your Titan's communicator. You can sync it up to the T-Car. I'm not sure you'll be allowed in however."

"I'll knock then. Nightwing will have to let me in." Vic was taking off his suit jacket, coat, and pants. Raven practically smiled when she saw him like that again. It was truly Cyborg. "I'll head out now. Bye, Raven. Bye, Grass Stain!"

"Yeah, bye!" Gar shouted from behind the door, and Vic soon left the apartment after setting a pair of keys on the table and telling Raven to lock up when she goes out. Raven nodded and placed her cloak back on, keeping the hood down. She waited patiently outside of the guest room, but after another couple of minutes, she had enough.

"Garfield." She banged on the door. "Need help with your makeup?"

There was more rustling and then something like a crash on the floor. Finally, Gar's voice droned from the other end. "Boy, did I miss your sarcastic wit."

She didn't know why her face blushed at that, but it did. "Do you need help?" She asked more seriously.

"Think...I got it! Damn, was this always so tight?"

Raven didn't remember. The team hadn't worn their uniforms around the Tower months and months before they disbanded, and her memory of Gar's uniform was only of when he was still a stick. The tight fabric was practically loose on his scrawny body then. Raven responded truthfully, "No."

The door opened and her eyes grew at Gar's body in the doorway. He scratched his dark green hair and looked at her sheepishly. "Well?"

No. It was definitely not that tight before.

Memories came back to her in flurries, specifically of some of their last training sessions and battles in uniform. Beast Boy was certainly not a boy. For a while he had even changed his name, and the uniform certainly reminded Raven as to why. His broad shoulders stretched the black and purple fabric wide, such that it looked like the material was painted onto his taut frame. She could practically see the outlines of his abs, the cords of his biceps and thighs. His body filled the uniform out easily, and Raven practically traced every contour, every muscle with her eyes before swallowing tightly.

Get a hold of yourself.

This should have been nothing to her. Hot men in skin tight uniforms were something she dealt with on a daily basis in massive quantity. She didn't know why her body was suddenly reacting like it was to it now, and she admitted to being slightly impressed that Gar hadn't lost any muscles mass for the two years he was retired. If anything, he seemed to have gotten...

She swallowed again and placed the hood over her head. "Ready?"

"Er, yeah." He seemed self conscious, though Raven didn't find any reason why he should be. Girlishly, she let him walk ahead of her, purple eyes southbound.

Lust, please stop.

A small part of her mind grumbled a 'no', but Raven chose to ignore that.

She exhaled and followed the green man out, locking the door behind them before teleporting the keys back into the T-Car and grabbing Gar's shoulder. "I have no idea what to expect here. Are you sure you want to come?"

He shrugged her off and grabbed her hand-gloved skin touching gloved skin. Raven shivered despite her cloak and Gar gripped her hand even tighter. "I think you know better than to ask me that."

She figured as much and let him maintain his grip. It seemed in that instant that no time had passed between them. It was two years ago. They were by the ocean. They were under the moon. She was happy. She had never been so happy before and Beast Boy had...

Raven grabbed his other hand and steadied her breath. She pushed down on whatever feelings were bubbling in her brain as reality occurred to her. This wasn't two years ago and her and Garfield Logan hadn't talked in years. They were barely friends; the only thing connecting them now was past familiarity and perhaps physical attraction. His breath hit her skin and she shivered once again.

Okay, so definite physical attraction. But that was it.

"I hope you remember what this is like."

"A shadowy, giant black raven. Think I got it." He smiled. "Let's go."

"Right. Yes." It took another ten seconds for her to calm down enough to have enough control to recreate her soul self. Once again, she felt her soul breach her body, consuming both physical beings of her and Gar. The changeling shifted, becoming flush against her physical form, and Raven knew he was a little scared. So she moved fast. The black raven soared, perfectly camouflaged within the night sky and landed on the edge of Applegate Avenue. In a few seconds, the black bird dissipated back into the air, and Raven steadied her hood on her head.

Gar panted next to her. "Okay...so maybe I remember it being a little, uh, steadier."

"Don't tell me you're nauseous."

"I'm not! Everything's cool." Gar inhaled deeply and cracked his knuckles. The area around them was nice. Very residential, with brownstones and tall green trees inlaid in the sidewalk. The changeling smiled. "This almost makes city living seem possible."

Raven turned down the street and started walking towards the Flash's last location. "Don't you live in L.A?"

"Yeah, and I wonder how. There's no place to...to..."

"Run wild?" Raven offered, for once not sarcastic with her pun.

Gar nodded and jogged a bit to catch up with her. "Yeah, exactly. It was different in Jump. We were constantly stopping criminals that I guess all that energy was just sort of worked out of me. But in L.A., I feel caged. It's bad. Maybe that's why..." He trailed off then, green eyes digging into the pavement below them.

"Why what?" Raven didn't turn on her empathy, not after Gar had told her off before. She watched as the numbers on the buildings steadily increased. 85, 87, 89...

The streets were pretty empty, which was strange for a major city on a weekend night. Raven kept closer to the buildings anyway to avoid the few people on the other side of the streets. Gar fumbled forward and smoothed out his belt, Titan communicator attached. "Why I needed a break. Vic called and I jumped at the chance to visit him."

"It's nice." Raven shifted through the shadows. 93, 95... "That you two kept in touch."

"Raven, I'm..."

She held up a hand as they approached number 97. Her eyes scanned the seemingly innocent looking brownstone, looking for any intimation that some sort of super powered struggle occurred here, but there wasn't any. Alternatively, she turned on her empathetic abilities. She wasn't looking for Red X anymore, and Wally would have been much, much harder to find-probably impossible because she didn't exactly know what emotion to look for.

And she felt nothing else around them, besides Gar's practically glowing-

"Rave?"

Raven turned and removed her hood to see Gar's green finger pointing up. Gar continued, "Just a hunch."

"Let's go." She started levitating up and Gar changed into a falcon, delicately catching the wind and lifting up to the roof.

The brownstone's roof was actually more of a garden, coated with green grass as a surface and with vines, trellises, and pots lining every edge. Raven felt her heart warm as Gar smiled, his purple sneakers hitting the turf. "Cool." He whispered before looking at some of the foliage. "Weird. You don't really realize how much you miss a place until way, way later."

"You ever think about going back to Africa?" Raven watched him freeze, ignore her question, and then transform into a bloodhound. She followed the now dog-form Gar around the roof noticing the ripped up grass, the mushy red X's on the ground. So they did fight here. Gar barked and Raven jogged up to see what the small, green dog was looking at.

"What?" She bent down and small Wally's earpiece, including his tracker, smashed on the ground. "Just great."

Another bark.

Raven turned to see Gar run across the roof, more towards the center and to what looked like a fairly large, glass greenhouse. The dog scratched on the closed door and Raven sighed. "Don't be lazy, Garfield."

The dog just continued to scratch and gave a slight whimper. Raven groaned and opened it up. Why don't you just change back?

The room was incredibly humid and filled with smashed flower pots and ripped up vines and turf. Gar sprinted forward, paws trampling through the dirt, until he stopped in front of a long, log-like structure completely composed of vines. Raven figured it out immediately, "Wally!"

She ran, bent down, and started to remove the vines around the Flash's body, but they were incredibly thick. It was difficult to rip, but Gar had morphed again, this time to a crab, and started to cut through the plant easily. When they began to see red underneath, Gar changed back. "Jeez, Red X did a number on him."

"He got away too." Raven continued to remove the vines from the Flash's face. He was unconscious, but luckily still breathing. If she had waited too long, he could have suffocated. "...but this..."

"It doesn't seem like him." Gar said, noticing how tightly the vines had been wrapped. "Red X doesn't work like this. He would never spend the time putting a hero in a trap this premeditated, especially when they could die."

"Yes." Raven's nerves were becoming unsteady. She cradled Wally's head in her lap, sliding her gloved fingers across his cheek. What happened to you? Who did this?

She felt Gar's eyes on her, but Raven ignored it and started to funnel healing energy to her hand. Slowly, Flash started to move his head, and he struggled a bit under the vines weakened, but still strong, vice. "What...what happened?"

"Hoping you could fill us in on that one," Gar muttered and continued ripping.

Flash attempted to sit up but fell back down, right into Raven's lap. "Raven? Is that you? You should warn me next time we're in a position like this. I'm not completely prepared..."

"Wally." Raven suddenly felt embarrassed and softly removed his head from on top of her. "What happened to Red X?"

"He got away."

"No shit, Sherlock," Gar ripped the last of the binds but didn't offer Flash any hand with rising. "Care to share a little more?"

"Beast Boy?" Finally, the Flash stood up, an amused, albeit slightly confused, look on his face. "Oh, I didn't know you joined the JLA. When did you manage to fit in that audition? In between the remake of Lassie or Black Beauty?"

"Wally..." Raven started.

Gar's alpha tendencies were purring. "Probably during the time you got your ass handed to you by some second rate villain."

Raven cursed herself, "Gar please..."

"The same villain that managed to get away from you earlier, right? But nice try. You've always been a little slow after a.-"

"STOP!" Her emotions burst, red eyes on her face even though she had separated from her father years and years ago. Dark energy flurried around her body, and both Gar and Wally stopped their verbal-macho-war instantly when her tone dropped five octaves. Raven inhaled, exhaled, and allowed the dark energy to vanish. Her eyes returned to their normal purple color, but her tone was ice, "Would you two stop acting like idiots for three minutes so I can find out what happened here?"

There was more blinking, worried looks, and finally Gar backed away to let Flash speak.

"Right, course, Raven." Flash sped ahead to stand next to the empath and crossed his arms. "Things were going fantastic. I followed that chump Red X over to Applegate, sped through the apartment, got on the roof, and walked in on a lovely scene of Red X exchanging that...raisin thing to some guy in black."

"It's called the Regenerative Egg." Gar grumbled. "Raisin thing. How stupid does that..."

Raven interrupted the changeling. There was no need to let them berate each other anymore. "Describe the guy in black."

Flash thought for a moment, "Can't really. He stood away from the light, had some hooded henchman come and get the thing, and then puff-of-smoke-vanished."

"And you just so happened to wrap yourself up in vines?" Gar asked.

"No." Flash was obviously perturbed as well. This is just going swimmingly. Raven turned to the speedster and widened her eyes to try and assuage the tension. It seemed to work. "I may or may not have tried to stop them. The henchman just sort of threw me up into the air and then I...was unconscious. I don't know about the vine thing."

"They wanted to kill you." Raven decided. "They wanted to leave a message for us. They knew you were following them."

"Probably," Flash agreed. "Though that doesn't exactly make me feel any better. I guess we just go out there and track them now." He held out a hand to Gar, "Thanks for helping Raven here, but her partner's all ready now so, you can go back to Cali and..."

"Wally, go back to the Watchtower." Raven said, making the Flash turn back to her.

"What, why?"

"Dude, we have another mission." Gar crossed his arms. "She was my partner long before yours after all."

Flash scratched his head, "Wait, wait. Didn't you retire? And wasn't that more like a team thing than an actual partner thing?"

"Same with the JLA, Wally." Raven grabbed Flash's hand, ignoring her biting emotions. "You have to tell Batman. This...I have a feeling this is going to be a lot worse than any of us think at the moment."

"So it's a perfect time to run along and relive Titan days?"

Raven glared, "Weren't you the one saying the same thing at dinner?" She didn't have time to deal with this. Turning off every emotion blaring at her, Raven walked back to Gar but still directed her speech to the Flash. "I'll contact the Watchtower to teleport you back. I'm sorry, but I have something really important to handle right now."

"Raven, how do you know this isn't more important?"

She didn't, and on a world danger scale, Flash was probably right. But both situations made her instinct feel sick. Both were dangerous, and she had already promised Starfire she would be there for her.

Raven was surprised to feel another tug at her hand, and she turned to see Gar pleading with her to move. "Rave, please. Vic's waiting."

Her finger went to her earpiece, and she told J'onn to teleport Flash back to the Watchtower. She felt his protest, his confusion and slight anger that she was leaving with Beast Boy and not him, but behind that all, she knew he was worried. What ever happened here had scared him. The deal Red X made on this rooftop did not stop after the two traders had left and abandoned the Flash for dead.

And then there was Starfire with her defeated tone and broken eyes. The stability of the world seemed to be crumbling under their feet, and Raven didn't know what was going on. You'll handle it. You and the JLA will figure this out like always. Things will be fine.

But she needed more reassurance. Under the stars, she waited for Gar to grab her other hand before whispering the three words that would lead to the Titan reunion.


A/N:

Thanks everyone for reading! Please leave a review and let me know how I'm doing! I'll get started on the next chapter straight away!