Batcave:

"Ok, so let me get this straight. We are going to have 30-50 'Starfires' showing up here looking for him?" Cyborg asks while thumbing at Nightwing. "And Star is not even one of them?"

"That seems to be the case." Raven confirms with her fingers folded in front of her. The group of 6 has taken seats at a round table on the platform below the memorial suits. Batman not trusting any of the three new arrivals with his identity yet, is stretching himself just by letting them inside the cave again, glad he had installed a few devices to scramble the signals he knows Cyborg had inside himself, and that he had the same signals scramblers in the car.

"The question is; why would they want me? If Blackfire is really alive and ruling them." Nightwing asks while looking at Raven for some kind of confirmation, while tapping the assembled Slade masks in front of him absent mindedly.

"I detected no lies from Slade, he was too scared to tell me anything but the truth." Batman had noted all the while in Arkham how effective Raven had been in interrogating Slade, usually he himself had to chase and interrogate someone several times to get the same reaction, he was mildly impressed, though most of him was worried about Slades lapse into insanity.

"Could it be because she is Starfire's sister and is really in love with you?" Tim asks, Beastboy snickers and Raven rolls her eyes along with Nightwing. Richard was well aware of how he was unconsciously able to woo women just by talking to them or by being near them; the exceptions had always been the ones that tried to kill him and Raven.

"That may be, but if what you have told me of her is correct. Starfire may be alive and Blackfire just wants you to deepen her sister's misery in some way." Batman theorizes, bringing back the memories amongst the Titans of how cruel that particular tamaranian could be.

"It is possible, Blackfire once tried to have Star married off to…some thing, while she held the crown on their planet." Cyborg says while he is internally replaying the whole incident in fast forward.

"Motives aside. The why in this case is not the most immediate concern, in two days time; Gotham will be invaded by a group of super strong aliens. And from what I know of Blackfire, they will most likely start breaking things if they don't find him." Batman states, indicating that the direction of the meeting has gone far enough down a track best left for later. "We need to plan on how to deal with this."

"Call in the League?" Beastboy asks timidly, Batman fixes him with a stare that makes him melt. "Sorry."

"Not in here dude." Tim whispers to him.

"I admit alien invasions are more in Superman's department, but if possible I will prefer keeping them out of Gotham."

"We could ask Jason?" Raven suggests, remembering that his arm should be more or less healed by now.

"Only if he can guarantee to keep his other self in check." Batman says after a moment in thought.

"I can talk to him about that." Raven ensures. "If you will allow it?"

"Ok, so it's the 6 of us and a dude called Jason, against 30-50 aliens that can have several tons dropped on them?" Beastboy asks.

"Numbers mean nothing if you choose the correct place to fight." Nightwing and Robin say almost simultaneously.

"You want them in the sewers, don't you?" Raven asks while looking at Batman, while thinking about how hampered Starfire became in small spaces.

"If we can lead them down there and force them to spilt up we can pick them off; one by one." Batman replies, Raven smiles inwardly at second guessing him.

"I can understand you wanting to do this in a certain way, but I'm not built for stealth." Cyborg points at the bright blue pieces of armor on his arms and shoulders. "And I am no good against one Tamaranian in a straight fight, wasn't the last time I tried that is." Nightwing sighs, knowing Cyborg is the complete opposite of stealth, he likes the sound of his weapons and he likes showing off and shouting.

"I am not expecting us to all battle them all one on one, they won't allow it if they can get away with it. If we can get Jason to come, you will be paired with him. Nightwing and Robin will be paired together. Raven, you're with me. Beastboy, how many poisonous animals can you turn into?"

"Umm, all of them, but I need to know them and what they can do if you want something specific?" Garfield replies, wondering where this was going.

"Good, while the rest of us work in pairs. You can move around the tunnels virtually unseen, when you see an opening, bite them to slow them down." Beastboy now beams visibly, being handpicked by Batman for a mission. "If that is the battle plan?" They all nod their agreement to it. "We just need to lure them down there." A moment passes in silence before Raven speaks up, after having eyed Nightwing during most of it.

"Slade said he was expected to signal them in two days. But he never said Robin had to be with him when he did."

"So you said, what's your point Rae?" Cyborg asks.

"Slade can lure them into the sewers, it would be logical he wouldn't hand Robin over to them in an open space in case Batman caught wind of it."

"Umm, Rae, you do remember handing him a one way ticket to Hotel Arkham? Right?" Beastboy asks.

"I do, and I wasn't thinking of having him doing it." Raven admits while levitating the face of the mask Nightwing has in front of him. Nightwing cringes inwardly thinking of where this was going. "Slade claimed so many times that you were alike, do you think you could pretend to be him for a few moments?" She asks while letting the mask float to his hands, which he accepts.

"You know how much I feared I would become him Rae, I am not sure I can do this, not even pretend." Nightwing admits while looking at the piece of metal in his hands.

"You are stronger than that, and it will only be for a few moments. Once you get them into the sewers we will arrange for your sudden disappearance and you can get out of it." Batman adds, knowing how he would feel to pretend to be the Joker, he would do it and so would Richard, but they wouldn't like it. Nightwing seems lost in thought for a moment, before he slowly assembles the helmet around his head, the mask the last thing he puts in place. His one eye looks at the rest of them slowly.

"Dude, that is messed up." Beastboy realizes how right Raven is, Slade and Nightwing both have the same build; with a change of clothes no one could tell the difference between the two.

"This is the part of me that nearly killed you three, and that created Red-X." Nightwing says in his own voice, Raven thinks about something.

"Try talking again."

"Why?" Beastboy, Cyborg and Nightwing nearly jump's out of their chairs as Nightwing speaks with Slade's voice. Nightwing tears off the face plate looking irritated at Raven.

"Warn me next time you feel like doing that!" He warns in his own voice.

"Don't worry, it is only working when talking through the mask. I just thought you needed to sound like him, if you have to talk to them." Raven explains, Nightwing holds up the mask in front of his face again.

"Very amusing Raven." Slade's voice is back.

As Nightwing begins to take off the rest of the mask, Robin asks: "So what if they don't all follow you into the sewers?"

"If we can find an old warehouse with a sewer entrance in it, we could have it collapse on top of it. It wouldn't harm any of the tamaranians too much but it will make it hard for them to follow." Cyborg suggest.

"That should be possible to find." Batman intones, somehow signaling they had a battle plan and the meeting begins to spiral into more trivial subjects because of Robin and Nightwing being better a gauging when Bruce had more to talk about, Raven walks over to talk to Batman who is still seated.

"What about Roman?" Batman knows she is expecting to go back to his gang at some point or not.

"Do you know where they keep their guns and drugs?"

"I do, he has a small bunker's worth of small arms in the basement, drugs are mainly kept in a room on the 3rd floor."

"Anything else in there we might pin him with?"

"He's got some sort of torture chamber on the 7th."

"We can deal with Roman tomorrow; I'll alert the police about him."

"You not planning having us join in the raid?" She asks.

"No, the city needs to see they are the real law enforcement. We can watch the building while they go in, if Roman gets out, we pick him up. But if things get too hot, we move in, Roman is dangerous when cornered." Raven nods before changing the subject.

"Guess I have to go get those books of yours back."

"If you will, and could you clean up the place before you leave?"

"Will do." Batman nods at her.

"Everyone needs to get some rest; Raven will drop off Cyborg and Beastboy near their hotel. She, I will pick you up when we need to assemble tomorrow." Batman notes that it is actually 4 in the morning, after the bat-clan bids the three good night the former Titans are enveloped by shadows before disappearing from the cave. Leaving the three to stare at the empty spot.

"Gotta admit; that's kinda cool." Tim says.

"I will have to get used to that." Batman replies.

"Me too." Nightwing admits with a smile.

The hotel room.

Raven's soul-self retreats back into her, revealing herself and her two traveling companions, who seem somewhat happy to be out in the light again.

"You outta consider getting some heat in there." Cyborg slaps Beastboy in the back of the head for the remark.

"What he is really saying is, we are sure glad to see you again Rae." He says before scooping Raven up in a bear hug, lifting her off the floor. "And I'm not letting go until you say you've missed me too!" He says with a huge grin while Raven begins to turn blue and red.

"Cyborg…put me down…don't make me hurt you." Raven warns, Cyborg just continues to grin. "Oh very well, I've missed both of you." She gives in and returns the hug.

"That's all I wanted to hear for starters…and who Batman is." Cyborg smiles before putting Raven back on the ground.

"I've had to do some very unpleasant things to some people because I know."

"Oh, like what?"

"Do you really have to ask?" Both boys remember Slade screaming for his life and figure it's best not to ask further. Beastboy decides to just lead it onto another Bat related subject.

"So what he like and who is the kid in Rob's suit?"

"Batman is paranoid, untrusting of me, and obsessive. The kid is Nightwing's replacement; our Robin came back after traveling to find him with Batman. It was at that point he changed his costume. The new Robin was the first one of them I met here." Raven explains.

"Bet you were surprised." Beastboy smirks.

"I tore his badge off his chest before telling him to go home." Raven says matter-of-factly.

"Kinda the wrong impression to give, you know, attacking Robin?"

"I thought it was some kid pretending to be Robin, which in this town happens to be a death wish unless you really are him. But I think we need to stop our trip down memory lane, I doubt Batman is a man that sleeps in. But I promise we will talk when all of this is over." She promises.

"You know you sound overly optimistic, for one about to face a large group of hostile tamaranians?" Cyborg asks.

"Well, I could say that I will walk down memory lane with your cold bodies in a morgue, but Garfield would be a sad panda then." Both males pale at the morbid remark, before Beastboy turns into a sad-looking green panda. Raven gently pats his now huge head. "Well goodnight and see you tomorrow." She says before disappearing.

"Seemingly cold, straight to the point, biting sarcasm, yup it's her." Cyborg says while counting on his fingers, his 'things to remember about Raven' list. Beastboy changes back to his human form.

"She's changed though." Beastboy was actually thinking about how she was actively taking part in the planning. Back in the day she would only do so in Robin's absence, tonight she had done so with both him and Batman present, including putting Nightwing in a very unpleasant situation. Cyborg has noticed something else entirely.

"Yeah, she's taller than you." Cyborg mentions with humorous tone as he picks up his toothbrush and begins to walk towards the bathroom, contrary to popular belief in Jump City. Victor actually has real teeth in his head, which he tries to maintain.

"Dude! That not funny." Beastboy looks up with hurt expression at Cyborg's back.

"Not to mention you will be bald in a matter of years." Victor closes the door behind him fast enough to shield him from the pillow flying towards him, with a satisfied smile on his face.

Next morning around 7.

Raven appears again in the hotel room to a strange sight, Beastboy and Cyborg are sharing the huge bedroom. Fortunately they are both lying facing away from each other on different beds; Raven has a devious thought about having them roll over to wake up in each other's faces but thinks better of it, for starters.

"Guys, time to get up." She says in her quiet voice, the only reply is Cyborg beginning to snore.

"Guy's?" She tries a little louder, still nothing, Raven decides not to shout so she doesn't wake the neighbors. Instead she acts on the idea and has the beds tilt gently towards each other, dropping the pair into each other on the ground. The result is a mess of swearing and cursing machine, animal and man.

"Dude! What the hell?" Beastboy complains after getting most of his body trapped under Cyborg.

"I dunno grass stain; I ordered separate beds for a reason!" Cyborg growls after getting stuck under a green bear.

The struggle to be the first one to get up continues for a few minutes, Raven wishes she had had a camera for this, payback for the times this pair had been sneaking around with one to capture the others in embarrassing situations. Fortunately for her they stopped trying to get her caught after the time she disassembled the camera, she had been reading in the living room and Beastboy had run up her leg as huge rat, which freaked her out. After that the duo decided to focus on Robin, who didn't appreciate it either, and Starfire who didn't get the joke. Raven clears her throat to get the others to notice, which they do and stop fighting immediately.

"Umm, morning Rae?" Cyborg asks waving at her beneath bear.

"Raven? When did you get up?" Beastboy asks.

"About 20 minutes ago when Batman called, he sent me to pick you and whatever luggage you got." Raven states while crossing her arms across her chest, the sign of 'no-buts, get moving.' Cyborg had one nonetheless.

"Umm, Rae, my car is in the parking lot." Raven sighs.

"Well put your luggage and yourselves into it."

"So does this mean we get to live with Batman?!" Beastboy almost yells, clearly overjoyed at the thought.

"Yes, you do Beastboy, you get to share the cave." Raven replies in a defeated tone because she really hoped he would be past that stage after last night. "Now get packing." The duo, finally, begins and 10 minutes later they are both walking out of the hotel towards the parking lot. Raven had teleported out when they left, saying she would meet them down there. Cyborg had taken the precaution of making spare rings for him and Garfield, knowing of Gotham, they might get broken or stolen.

"I thought she said she was gonna meet us here?" Garfield complains seeing no one in the parking lot.

"Relax, she's probably just keeping out of sight." Victor reassures him, as he begins loading their stuff into the trunk.

"Or in plain sight, somewhat." Ravens voice speaks from below them, making both of them jump, seeing Ravens eyes staring back at them from their own combined shadow. "It's a trick I leaned while you were away, and don't argue with me here, people will think you're crazy." The pair looks at each other before pretending nothing was wrong. After getting in the car, Raven makes sure no one is watching them before dragging the car and its occupants into the shadows on the ground. Beastboy screams like a girl and Cyborg holds his nose closed, the pair is the image of being trapped aboard a sinking ship.

A moment later the car reappears a few inches above the floor in the Bat-cave, next to the other vehicles. Cyborg gets busy complaining to Beastboy about the rough landing of his baby as it's dropped, Gar puts his fingers in his ears to block him out. Raven emerges out of the shadows before the car, to face the sole person in the cave to greet them; Nightwing.

"I actually expected you later." He says smiling at Raven.

"Apparently Batman is enough to get Beastboy out of bed early." She replies as the duo behind her gets out of the car.

"Where is he by the way?" Beastboy asks while looking at every shadow big enough to hide the person in question.

"He's working, for now you'll have to make do with me. You two will need a tour of the place before we have combat practice."

"Same'ol same'ol, eh Rob?" Cyborg says while circling his right index finger in the air.

"Well, can't have you growing soft on me can I?" Nightwing counters before motioning for the pair to follow him. Raven excuses herself, heading up to the mansion by the staircase. "Going up there will not make Batman happy." Nightwing intones before any of the two can asks what's up there, making it quite clear that the stairs are off limits to them.

"She's changed a lot, hasn't she?" Cyborg asks after being introduced to the chemical lab.

"How much I can't say yet, but yes she's not the Raven we knew, not entirely. But leaving a person alone for four years will do that to anyone. She's more powerful now for one thing." Nightwing admits, the world-saving event Raven pulled off on her father was agreed by all, Raven included, was a onetime thing but he was wondering if that same power was still in there.

"Soo, when do I get to meet this partner of mine?" Cyborg asks, deciding to prod about a question that will define his role in this.

"Raven will be visiting him later today." Nightwing says. "Hopefully she can persuade him to come along."

Meanwhile in the kitchen.

"Ah, good morning miss Raven." Alfred greets her with a smile as he is cleaning the dishes the residents of the house used earlier. Raven is actually a bit surprised he notices her enter the room as the swing door makes little sound when opened, she guesses it comes down to having Batman as your employer.

"Good morning Alfred." She responds while sitting down on one of the tall seats at the table in the middle of the room.

"I trust you retrieved your companions successfully?" He asks while inspecting a porcelain cup for any spec that shouldn't be there.

"Richard is giving them the tour of the basement right now." She says before silently watching him work. "Do you clean it all by hand?"

"Why yes, it is after all my responsibility that there are no stains on the masters porcelain." Alfred proclaims proudly before asking something himself. "Do you believe the gentlemen down below will find their accommodations suitable?" Raven smirks a little at the word gentlemen, not something neither Richard nor herself would choose to call them, not Garfield anyway.

"If I know them right, one will be fighting to keep droppings off his car when he realizes it and the other will most likely have to be restrained so he doesn't demolish the cave." Alfred masks his laugh behind a cough while he wipes his hands in the white apron he wearing over his usual suit.

"Well I am sure we can find a remedy to the first problem. Would you care for some breakfast?" He asks.

"I would, thank you." Alfred smiles before busying himself with white bread, butter, tea and the like, Raven feels kind of weird having the elderly man run around the kitchen for her. Something she notes when he serves her a cup of tea along with a few slices of bread. "You know, I still feel a bit like an intruder here."

"Oh, how so?" Alfred asks with a bit of worry in his voice.

"I've been out of touch with Richard for four years, including disappearing for an entire year and then I suddenly, with no warning show up here and muscle my way into his…and Bruce's home. And that I happen to know Bruce's most guarded secret without him wanting me to know makes all this kind of awkward." Alfred knows this conversation; he's had similar ones with both Richard and Tim during their first weeks living in Wayne Manor.

"You worry that he may find you unworthy of knowing?"

"I do, actually was surprised he didn't insist on having me put in a medically induced coma or something." She replies. "I knew it was going to come back to hit me one day, but neither me nor Richard knew how to break it to him."

"You misunderstand Master Bruce, his identity is valuable to him, but it is not something he guards with his life. He always expects people to figure it out at some point, one way or another, always has since he adopted Master Richard. It is a safety precation."

"Did he expect Richard to slip up?" Raven asks, not quite believing Bruce could be that untrusting.

"Not at all, Master Richard was always trying to be better than Master Bruce and that he would be even less willing to let it slip because of that. But Master Bruce figured it would only be a matter of time before Master Richard had to reveal himself to you, his friends, and you would have worked it out from there and that he would just have to accept that you were considered trustworthy enough to know. It did surprise him a lot when he was told all of you only knew him as Robin."

"We figured he slept with the mask on." Raven remembers some of Beastboy's and Cyborg arguments about who was really hiding behind the mask, Starfire only wondered what color his eyes was, after she was told he was hiding them. "So with me showing up here was a blow to Richard more than it was to Bruce?"

"I don't believe so, during his descriptions of your team, he did mention on several occasions that you were the first one he would trust with it. I suppose you know why?"Alfred asks making Raven think in two directions, on one hand it is a small blow to her ego that it might not just be because she was a trusted friend and ally of his.

"I had and still have enough of my own secrets, if I told anyone about his, he would have a good reason looking into mine and speak of them."

"True enough, but that none of your friends ever came to Wayne Manor, before now when you were invited, have proven you capable of keeping it a secret."

"I guess that counts for something." Raven says before finishing off the last piece of bread. "Thank you for the breakfast Alfred. I see you made enough for two more." She says while noting the extra tray on the counter.

"Quite right, I assumed you had to wake your companions before the Arms had a chance to serve. Would you be so good to take it to them, after I get a sheet for your friend's car?"

"Bruce decided to keep you a secret for the time being?" Alfred just nods before walking out a door, returning a few moments later with a folded piece of bone white cloth. Raven in the meantime has pulled out the bag containing the books she borrowed; being able to leave stuff in other dimensions is handy.

"Did you get a chance to finish those?" Alfred asks looking at the books sticking out of the bag.

"Unfortunately no, but I hope to finish them later on if possible."

"Well I do hope you get a chance, neither of the Masters find much time to read anything longer than the newspapers. Unless an injury is involved, and you know how they become then."

"Wounded bears. Would you mind putting the books aside for me?" She asks while using her powers to lift the tray with food and slinging the cloth over her shoulder.

"Of course." Alfred says with a smile at the retreating Raven and levitating tray.