Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.

ROBYN

It's not every night you wake up in a cold sweat, and it's not that fun when you do. The faint fear in the back of your mind, the twitching of your muscles as they wake up and adrenaline floods your veins.

The faint sound of your door closing.

In an instant I'm on my feet, birdarang hidden under my pillow now in hand. My eyes are still foggy as I squint around my room. My ears twitch incessantly, trying to catch another noise. When my vision does clear after a moment I can see that there is actually no one in my room. They must have been leaving, not entering.

I debate calling the other Titans through the communicator, but abstain. It's possible that the person in my room was Crow. I don't know why he'd be here, but I'm sure he'd have a reason.

Basically, I just don't want to panic everyone over my own paranoia. I was already twitchy when going to sleep, this could all just be my imagination.

"Stop overthinking, just go out there and see what's going on." I think, taking a calming breath and walking to the door. I clench the weapon in my hand tightly and tap the button. The metal sheet slides open to reveal… Nothing. Peering out into the hallway shows nothing either.

Maybe my nerves are just getting to me. I'm hearing things I suppose. I really need to calm down, I should just go back to sleep… But I can't. My training taught me to never make light of even seemingly ridiculous occurrences, and me waking up in the middle of the night for no reason counts. I'm going to patrol the halls for a bit, make sure nothing is wrong. At the very least it should calm my nerves.

I make sure to be as quiet as possible. I sneak up to each of my teammates' doors and put my ear to it, listening in for any sounds of movement starting with Crow (who is actually at the far end of the hall). I hear absolutely nothing from his room nor Starfire's. Sighing softly and shaking my head, I move over to Cyborg's room.

The soft sound of something on metal causes me to freeze. My ears twitch and I cock my head, trying to hear more. After a moment it continues; a small tapping sound, like delicate footsteps, but somewhere I can't locate.

"Changeling?" I call out softly, thinking that perhaps my teammate is in the form of some animal. That would explain the footsteps. "Is that you?"

"Robyn?"

"Eep!" I jump slightly. I was so focused on the footsteps I didn't even hear Changeling's door open. "Changeling!" I whisper hoarsely. "Uh, I guess that wasn't you?"

"You can hear it too huh?" She murmurs in reply. She rubs her eyes tiredly, clearly having just woken up like myself. "I was about to go wake Ru- Crow so he could help me find out what it is."

"I was avoiding it to be honest." I mutter. "Didn't want to wake someone for possibly nothing."

"Better safe than sorry." She yawns.

"Fair enough." I nod. "You get Crow, I'll get Cy and Star."

"Roger."

As she goes of to wake Crow, I knock firmly on Cyborg's door. "Cyborg, get up." When there's no response after a moment, I knock louder. "Cy, we might have a situation, get up!" After Cyborg still doesn't respond, I yell. "Cyborg, if you don't get out here I'm coming in."

Silence.

"Fuck this." I grumble. I pull out several disks from my belt and, after taking a few steps back, throw them at the door where they promptly explode and blow it apart. "If she wasn't awake before, she sure as hell is now." I growl. As an afterthought, I add, "We really need a master key or something."

Walking into Cyborg's room, one hand waving away the smoke of the explosion, reveals that Cyborg is nowhere to be found. Despite this, there are no signs of a struggle. The ugly orange walls and all of Cy's blinking electronics are all without scratches or dents.

"Cy?" I croak, casing around in vain for my metal teammate. The effort really is futile, it's not like the room is any larger than half a shipping container, and there's absolutely nowhere to hide anything… Beside the closet. Why the hell would Cyborg be in the closet? "Seriously Cy, not funny." I grumble, walking over to the closet. I pull it open to show… Nothing. The closet is completely empty.

Suddenly this room seems a lot more foreboding knowing that its occupant just disappeared without trace. The metal bed seems sinister, the shadows it casts due to the small blinking lights seem ominous. The vent underneath the bed (which, by the way, lacks any heating or cooling capabilities. It's just there to keep the air flowing) looks like it's laughing at me.

Not even two weeks in, and one of my teammates just ups and disappears? No, no, this has to be a mistake, a misunderstanding. Maybe Cyborg has something to do… at two o'clock in the morning. Maybe she heard that thing too and went to investigate! Yeah, that's probably it, nothing to worry about.

"Ruban's gone!" Changeling says urgently, dashing into the room. "He's not in his room!"

"You mean Crow?" I ask. "Cyborg's gone too."

"What could have happened?" Changeling groans. "Did I do something wrong again?"

"Huh?" I'm now completely lost. "Why, did you offend Cy somehow?"

"Cy? No, actually… Nevermind, I'm thinking of this the wrong way." She grumbles. "Just a tad worried."

"So am I." I grimace. "Let's see if Star's here; if not, then we need to start searching."

"Right!" She growls. Her voice is a bit panicked, though she hides it well.

"Deep breaths Changeling." I say, marching out into the hall and over to Star's room. "A level head is essential for our line of work."

"I know." She groans. "and if it weren't for Crow…"

"Batwoman always advised against relationships inside a team." I muse. "I guess this is why."

"Pardon me for caring about him." She says dryly.

"And you don't care about the others?" I ask sarcastically.

"Not as much as him." The green girl says bluntly. "If I had to choose between his life and all of yours; you three would be dead in a heartbeat."

The fact that she could say something like that so casually surprises me. It must have shown on my face, or in my posture, because she quickly picks back up where she left off.

"Don't get me wrong, I'd save all of you if I could, but if there was absolutely no other choice…" She trails off.

After a moment I say, "I get it," under my breath. To prevent her questioning me, I knock on Star's door. "After all, I'd save Brianna and Amelia over you four any day."

Starfire, predictably, doesn't answer, so I blast down his door and we move cautiously into his room.

His room is slightly different from Cyborg's. The trident that usually occupies the wall above Star's mattress is gone; as is the armor from the armor stand in the corner of the room. The bed sheets are completely off the mattress, as if thrown aside.

"Something happened here." I whisper, indicating the empty weapon holder and armor stand. Changeling nods silently as she checks the closet.

Tap, tap, tap…

The footsteps sound again, this time distinctly from the vent just to the side of Starfire's bed.

"In the vents?" Changeling mouths, pointing down. I nod silently and beckon her close to me.

"Best not to go in." I whisper in her ear. The vents are too small for anyone but one of Changeling's animal forms to get into, and I don't want her going alone. "Too dangerous."

She growls slightly, but nods in agreement. She clearly wants to get at whatever's in there, but it's just too risky right now. If that thing, whatever it is, took out our teammates with only a minor scuffle, then we absolutely cannot engage unless we know what we're fighting.

Clack, clack…

"That doesn't sound like the thing in the vents." I mouth to my green teammate. We both turn to the hallway, listening intently.

Clack, clack, clack…

Whatever it is is coming closer, and I'm not too keen on being seen right now. Unfortunately there's no place for me to hide unless they're too stupid to check the closet.

Catching Changeling's attention, I point to myself and then the closet. I then point at her, and then push both my hands slowly together, indicating for her to shrink. She gets the message, and turns into a fly and lands on the ceiling. I quickly, but quietly, get into the closet and close the door.

It's even darker in the closet than the room. At least the dim light from the moon shines through the thick windows, but in the closet there's nothing. Worse yet, there's no gaps in the door to look out of, and it's half a foot thick of metal, meaning I can't really hear anything either.

The silence is so tense it's painful, as I wait with one hand on a birdarang for the door to slide open. When it does, I instinctive lash out, but stop just short of hitting the figure in front of me.

"Starfire?" I breath, recognizing his silhouette against the dim light of the moon. "Oh thank god it's you. We were looking for… you?" Something strikes me as very, very, wrong. Despite me being in his closet and nearly stabbing his eye out with a birdarang, Starfire's expression is completely blank. That, and he's in full armor and carrying the trident from his wall limply by his side. "Star?" I ask weakly, looking up at his face.

"Grab her." A nasally voice commands from the doorway. I'm too caught off guard to dodge when Starfire grabs me by the wrist so tightly that it forces me to drop my birdarang. "Bring her here." My alien teammate nearly wrenches my arm out of its socket as he drags me to the middle of the room.

A small figure walks over from the doorway, their light footsteps making it clear that they were the one in the vents. When they step into the moonlight, I'm surprised to see what looks like a wooden doll with rounded joints, a nutcracker-like mouth, a light blue dress and similarly colored cloche, and a face painted all white with bright red cheeks.

"What are you?" I ask impulsively, staring at the figure in confusion.

"The question is not what, but who." The figure corrects. Now that I'm paying proper attention, I can hear her voice has a bit of a british accent, though it's mostly drowned out by her nasally tone. "I am the Puppeteer, and you, Titans, are the puppets." She pulls out something from behind her back, holding it up in the moonlight. "I already have your other friends."

For a moment I'm not sure what I'm looking at, it just looks like a few tiny puppets that resemble my missing teammates. I quickly make the connection though when one of them, the Starfire puppet, actually holds up its head and looks at me.

"You put their minds into the puppets." I say, horrified. The other puppets have started to move as well, with Cyborg reaching out a hand and Crow staring up at the ceiling.

"Exactly." The Puppeteer sneers. With her other hand she reaches behind her back again and pulls out two more puppets; these ones resemble me and Changeling. "And the both of you are next."

It's in that moment that I realize Changeling must have been noticed, but it's too late. The left eye of the Puppeteer glows a ghostly blue and I immediately feel sick. There's an audible crash as Changeling falls to the floor, no longer in animal form, and groaning from what I assume to be similar effects. Our bodies, as well as the two smaller puppets, are enveloped in wispy teal fog that travels between us.

I try to grab a birdarang with my free hand, but the Puppeteer commands Starfire to restrain me further and he pins both hands to my back. Changeling, on the other hand, is not restrained in any such fashion, and it proves to be our saving grace.

Snarling at our foe, Changeling's claws and fangs extend to their full length as she lashes out at the Puppeteer. The wooden doll proves to be surprisingly agile, and dodges the first few swipes. My eyesight grows blurry as Changeling desperately, but with increasing sluggishness, tries to hit the doll in front of her.

I've almost completely blacked out when I hear the Puppeteer cry out "Gah!" Suddenly, I'm on the floor. There's something in my mouth, tasting of wood and paint, and I immediately spit it out. From behind me I can hear a yell of exertion from Changeling as she breaks free of Starfire. He must have tried to defend the Puppeteer and dropped me to do so.

"Run!" Changeling cries out. I don't even bother to look behind me and dash for the exit. My body feels awkward, and I stumble drunkenly out into the hallway. I fall almost immediately, and stick out my hands to break my fall.

It's at this point I notice that I have no gloves on, and that my skin is green.

Someone grabs my arm and hauls me to my feet. "Get up, we need to move!" The voice doesn't seem to add up with who I know this must be.

"After them!" The Puppeteer cries out. Me and Changeling break out into a sprint, dashing for the stairs near the elevator. My gait is still awkward, as I'm not used to running with platform shoes. My legs also keep bumping into each other, and I stumble several times.

There's a crashing noise as Cyborg's body comes careening around the corner and slams into the wall on the far side. It would seem the Puppeteer doesn't have the greatest control over her puppets. We dash past, and Changling flings open the door to the stairwell and leaps over the railing. I follow suit, dropping down several levels as I jump awkwardly to the flights below.

"Here!" Changeling calls from below me. I land on the same set of stairs where she was just standing and she grabs my arm, dragging me into one of the Tower's many empty corridors. We run along them for a minute, taking several turns, before Changeling pulls me into an empty room where we stop, our breathing shallow.

"What-" I gasp. "Is happening?"

"Beats me." Changeling responds. "But I have to say, you don't handle my body very gracefully."

I had made the connection before, but it really hits me now how strange this is. It's so weird seeing yourself standing beside you, knowing there's no mirror to separate you. On the other hand, being in Changeling's body is so awkward. She feels more… Heavy, than me. Which is to be expected honestly, her legs, chest and hips are a decent bit thicker than mine.

"It feels so weird having these chicken legs." She mumbles, jumping from one leg to the other. "And your body is so much harder than I expected." She knocks her… My? Her knuckles against her stomach. "I have to hand it to you Rob, you're toned as fuck."

"And you're soft somehow." I note, pushing in my stomach. Realizing something, I reach down and grab my thigh. Sure enough, I can feel almost no muscle at all. "Geeze Changeling, I thought this was all muscle! Do you do any exercise at all?"

"Hey! I get plenty!" She chuckles. "That's just how my superpowers work. I get to keep all the strength from training while also getting this strange supermodel look."

"But you're so squishy." I complain, poking my arm.

"Hardly. My skin is actually kinda rubbery, some weaker blows literally bounce off it." She explains.

"Weird."

"Says the girl with chicken legs." She taps the side of her leg. "Seriously, I'm worried these are going to break if I walk with them wrong."

"At least you can walk." I grumble. "These platform boots are annoying, and my legs keep hitting each other."

"That's because I don't have chicken legs." She remarks. "And seriously, if my legs are rubbing against each other, start walking with them further apart. I don't want a rash thank you."

I sigh and nod. I practice walking for a moment, and it feels like I'm waddling like a penguin. Changeling doesn't say anything though, so I presume I'm not totally doing it wrong.

"I just realized, our voices don't carry over." Changeling says. "I mean, it makes sense, voices aren't a mental thing, but it's strange to hear my words come out in your voice."

That's an understatement. If I'm being honest, Changeling makes my voice sound good. The usual rumble she uses makes my voice sound almost sultry, something I could never manage even if I tried (not that I have of course, just saying).

When I speak, on the other hand, it makes her usually husky tone sound like someone with a cold. My higher pitched rasp doesn't go well with a voice so used to low, thick tones.

"So," I say, stopping my pacing. "We need to get the others back."

"And get back to our own bodies" She adds. "As fun as yours is, I like mine better. No offense."

"Agreed." I nod. "But we should worry about the others first."

"I won't argue there."

"One problem." I grimace. "I'm not so great with your body, and I doubt transforming will go so well."

"Yeah, that could be a slight issue." She nods. "And I'm used to biting and scratching in human form, not punching or kicking, and definitely not with gadgets."

"Looks like we both need a crash course." I say. "Who's first?"

"I'll go." She sighs, putting her hands on her hips. "Just tell me what I need to know."

"Alright," I say, pursing my lips as I think of what to tell her first. "So, first thing to know…"

Gonna fade out here. This chapter is pretty long. So, surprise puppet king! Or 'Puppeteer' as she calls herself. I didn't like the name 'puppet queen', so I thought up something else.

Origami Stars: Robyn has good reason to be nervous. We know Changeling is pretty stubborn and hardheaded when dealing with people aside from Crow. She can be very empathetic, but often chooses not to be when someone annoys her (which is actually a big problem, because it means she can't see both sides of an issue). We've seen both attitudes from Changeling; apathetic towards Robyn's thoughts and feeling, and empathetic towards Crow.

Speaking of Crow, he finds importance in what most people might consider minor things. Mostly because those minor things wouldn't have worked out so well on Azarath. The hair brushing is a prime example of that.

I'm sure his interactions with others will be incredibly awkward. It'll be interesting to write.

A person: I know, only two days seems ridiculous to me too. I suppose it's because I cut out so few details about what happens. The only major thing I skipped over so far was Changeling venting to Crow after dinner (because we didn't need a whole chapter of her yelling about Robyn again).

Changeling is very… Passionate, and opinionated, and has anger issues, and there's no guarantee is isn't 'that time of the month' either; so yeah, mood swings.

Ah, backstory, my favourite thing to tease and hold over all your heads. No, by the way, Azarath is different in both universes, the culture is significantly different. Raven's Azarath is not a matriarchy. I'm sure Raven and Crow, and indeed all of both Titans, will meet some day, so that will be one conversation I'm sure we'll all want to hear!