GLAD I FINALLY GOT THIS CHAPTER DONE. TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE BAILING OUT AT THE STORE I WORK, SO I HAVE BEEN TAKING EXTRA SHIFTS, DOING EXTRA WORK AT MY USUAL DEPARTMENT BECAUSE OF THE TRAINEE, AND JUGGLING SCHOOL. I BOUGHT THE LAST ISSUE OF TEEN TITANS, NUMBER 100, NOT THE GRAPHIC NOVEL (IRONICALLY, I FOUND THE COMIC BOOK SECTION AT MY BOOK STORE JUST BEFORE THE REBOOT…NOT MY GREATEST TIMING EVER. I SWEAR, I EVEN ASKED SOMEONE IF THERE WAS A COMIC BOOK SECTION AND THEY SAID 'THERE'S A GRAPHIC NOVEL SECTION'.), JUST SO I CAN SOAK UP THE LAST KNOWN RAE/BB MOMENTS BEFORE IT'S OVER.

I DON'T KNOW IF THE REBOOT WILL HAVE RAE OR BB, IT'S ONLY BEEN ONE ISSUE. MAYBE IF THERE IS PRESSURE, THEY'LL SLOWLY GET BACK TO WHERE THEY LEFT OFF. MAYBE. I'M NOT HOLDING MY BREATH. BUT THAT'S WHY THE INTERNET WAS INVENTED, SO US NERDS/GEEKS COULD CONTIUNE THE QUEST OF COUPLING WITH FICTIONAL CHARACTERS.

Lydia was sitting in her multicolor room, against her baby blue wall where her toys were placed. She was still wearing her yellow sun dress as she played with her pony tail for a bit before looking back down on the floor. She sat cross leg, looking at her tan blanket that had the various scenes of the African safari. She then went back to playing with her stuffed animals neatly stacked on the side and picked up her stuffed cat and stuffed bear.

"Now Kitty was shy and didn't like to play with Beary," Lydia said to herself, narrating her own story and moving the inanimate animals around. " 'Kitty, why don't you like me?'" She said in a low voice. "(Raising her voice to a high pitch) 'Because'(Back to the low pitch) 'Because why?' 'Because you scare me, you're a bear and bears scare me'….no that's stupid." She said to herself, wondering how she should continue her stuffed animal soap opera to take her mind off of her own problems. " 'I don't like you Beary, because…..because….because you like Doug the Dog, and I hate Doug.' (She position the bear to look over to the brown stuffed dog on the other side of the room) 'Why do you hate Doug?' 'Because he's a dog and I'm a cat.'"

At that moment someone knocked at the door. She put her stuffed animals down and looked up.

"Lydia?" Her father asked before he opened the door. She looked out at the window as he walked towards her. He left the door slightly ajar, as Raven wanted to wait outside. Garfield sat down next to her. "You didn't eat dinner with us. Do you want to talk about it?"

"No…..well….yeah…Daddy, why do I have powers?" She simply asked, looking up at him. "Can't Mama take them away from me?"

"No, I'm afraid she can't." He said, lowering his ears. "I know it's hard to understand, but you were born with these powers, and these powers happen to be both good and bad. Good, because you can do amazing tricks with them, and bad, because…..because you can't feel without destroying something with them. They are a part of you, like your eye and hair color."

"I don't like the good stuff if I have to have the bad stuff. How come I'm like this?" She asked, but more to herself then to her father.

He had already given her an answer, but she didn't want to believe it. She wanted to believe that her parents had a choice before she was born about which powers she could have and which she couldn't have. They probably decided to give her Raven's powers to her when she wasn't looking and now she was stuck with them forever.

"Just, don't think about it too much, or you'll get upset." He said, interrupting her train of thought. "I can see you were thinking about it just then. You have that same look your Mama has when she thinks about it too much. Let's think about something else. How about what you want for dinner. Hmm? Me and Mama already had something, so it's your choice what you want for dinner." She looked to the side, maintaining her grim expression. "Lydia, you gotta eat something." She looked up at the ceiling. "Are you being quiet on purpose, so you don't cry?"

She slowly nodded her head as she continued to avoid eye contact. She used to have his charismatic nature, and now her powers were preventing her from carry on a conversation with him.

"How about I make some pasta? Would you like that?" He asked, trying to get her out of this emotionless coma.

She nodded her head again as Garfield put his hand on her shoulder and rubbed it a bit before he said that he would have a bowl of pasta ready for her shortly. Then he turned around and walked out of the room.


"So?" Raven asked in concern even though she was able to maintain her pan dead expression as he closed the door.

"I think she is just trying to accept it as best as she possibly can." He said as he looked back at the closed door. "Rae…it's funny. Ever since you told me you would keep her when you were pregnant, I kept on practicing on how I would tell her the dark nature of her powers. I kept on practicing, hoping that that particular day wouldn't come soon." He exhaled heavily as Rae looked down. "For a while, I was so happy that I figured it would never come. But it has." He gently placed his hands on the door frame, hoping it would comfort him, as he continued to speak in a soft voice. "I thought I had that whole speech ready for her, but as soon as my heart attack came and we were having sessions about Trigon, I had stopped practicing the speech. I figured nothing else horrible can happen to us; that we were heroes and the universe owed us a little something for our troubles. Why did it have to happen now? Why?"

Raven couldn't do anything, but looked down as he spoke. A couple of times she wanted to interrupted, but thought it was best to let him finish his ramblings. When he was done, she looked back up and rested her hand up against the door with his. After she gave him another second to calm down, she opened the door slightly and gently nudged him a bit as she stepped inside. He looked back up as she gave him a reassuring glance before she closed the door.


Lydia heard her mother come in, but she was busy looking out of the window and watching the ocean violently beat up against the rocks. Raven walked in and sat down next to her and watched the same scene. Silence filled the room, as it was aa while before either mother or daughter said anything. They couldn't even hear the ocean since they were behind the glass, watching it from stories above, but they just imagined how it sounded. They felt a slight warmth in the air as the heater was kicking on due to the fact that it was almost dusk. Pretty soon the ocean would become hard to spot in the night as it would become a glistened black void against a dark blue sky instead of the clear blue sheet against the light orange, pinkish sky there was at the current moment.

A couple of times Lydia would look over to her mother, who wouldn't look back. Raven's face was stoic, her eyes suggested that she wasn't fully in the real world anymore, and she sat in her cross leg posed for a quite a while before she switched her legs.

Finally, Lydia couldn't take the silence anymore. "Mama, whatcha you doing?"

"Watching the ocean." She simply said without so much as moving her pupils towards Lydia's general direction.

"Why are you here?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing. Daddy didn't quite know how to handle your powers delicately." She said. "But I do." She lied, but she lied for Lydia's benefit and not her own.

"What's going to happen?"

"Nothing. Unless you want something to happen." Raven said, continuing to look out of the window.

"What? What does that mean? You're confusing me, Mama."

"What are you confused about?"

"The thing you just said. What happens? Like, when I have feelings? What happens if I feel?"

"Your powers get unleash and destroy the closest thing near you."

"But why?"

"You know why."

"Why did you give me these powers?" Lydia asked, getting irritated as she well knew the answer to her pervious question.

"I didn't give them to you, you were born with them. If I had my choice, I would have made sure you had your father's instead. But sometimes life isn't fair. We are always thrown challenges throughout life. Only those with the strength from within can defeat them and live in peace." Raven realized she was playing the 'mystery girl' act, but she thought that maybe her 'mystery girl' act could work on Lydia as it could intrigue her more.

"I hate them." Lydia stated, folding her arms as she said so.

"You do not hate them. You hate the bad parts of them. But you love everything else about them because you can do amazing things with them, such as making objects fly and reading people's thoughts."

"But I am not allowed to read—"

"For a good reason. It is more of a survival tool. If you are ever in a situation where a bad guy wants to hurt you, and Daddy and I are not there to help, use your powers to get away from him, such as reading his mind to know what his weakness are and run away." Raven looked over to Lydia in order to show how serious she was about her pervious statement. "Do you understand? If you ever find yourself in danger, use your powers. But for now, you need to learn how to control your feelings. Understand?"

"Um, um, um, okay." Lydia said, as her mother continued to look into her eyes. Lydia had the opportunity to ask her mother a question, and she took it. "Mama? Mama, where did these powers come from? I mean, how do you know how to use them? Humans don't have powers, so…I mean Daddy says he's green because of a disease, but he's still human. Why are you grey? Did you get sick like Daddy?"

"Lydia," Raven said, looking off to the side before looking back into her eyes. "Lydia, I don't know if you are old enough to know the truth." Raven bluntly said. She could have lied or even given her a sugar-coated story, but she couldn't.

"Not old enough? I'm four and three quarters. I'll be five in—one, two, three (Counting on her hands)—in three weeks. My birthday month is almost here. I'm a big girl." She asked, holding out her fingers to show Raven that she would indeed turn five pretty soon. "Or is this like the Barbie rule?"

"It's like the Barbie rule." Raven said, trying anything to get her to stop talking about this topic.

"But why?" She complained.

"You need to learn how to control yourself. When you have learned enough, we will then tell you." Raven said, lowering her head.

"But why? Why are we this way?" She asked, grabbing Raven by her cloak and yanking on it. "Mama, why?" Raven turned around to face Lydia, and kneeled before her.

Raven couldn't say anything more. Garfield may have practice his speech for Lydia hundreds of times, but Rae could barely begin to explain anything to her. She was half hoping Garfield would have helped prepare her for her speech as well, but she knew she was just kidding herself.

"You're right, you are turning five." Raven said, changing the subject as she pushed a piece of Lydia's hair back behind her ear. "Maybe you will be old enough for a Barbie by then."

"A Barbie!" Lydia asked with excitement, taking her mind off of the conversation at hand. "Really?"

She was going to give Lydia a childhood, one that Rae herself never had and always wanted. Although, Lydia was already having a strange childhood to begin with, seeing as her parents were superheroes and she lived away from others, it was still pretty normal psychology then it was for her mother.

"Maybe." Raven said with a mysterious tone, while smiling, suggesting that she would indeed give her a Barbie on her fifth birthday. "Come on," She said, picking Lydia up and heading towards the door. "You need to eat something and I hear Daddy's making you pasta."

Raven refused to be her mother, and while her mother did raise her in a safe environment with the best education in the world, Arella didn't exactly win the 'best mother' award from Rae herself. In fact, Rae would have welcomed a little danger in her life if it meant her mother could have hugged her once in a while instead of once a year by her account.


Lydia's fifth birthday came around and she did indeed get the long awaited Barbie doll. However, she didn't receive the usual blond Barbie. She was given Christie, the African American Barbie, with a pair of clothes. Nothing too fancy, but enough to satisfied her. Raven thought that it was a way for her to be gradually introduced to Barbie with a Christie doll, as Lydia could just pretend it was a plastic version of her African Native dolls. Garfield, on the other hand, thought that Raven was the one who wasn't ready for a blond hair, blue eyes doll, as it could remind her of a certain someone.

It was a moment of distraction for Lydia to have a Barbie, just so she could stop asking questions. Both Garfield and Raven knew what they were doing was devious, but they were buying time; the more they could protect her from the truth, the longer she could maintain her innocence's, and just be a somewhat normal girl who happened to have superheroes as parents.

Okay, so not completely normal, but close enough.

For the next few months, Garfield had enough strength to start teaching Lydia again while Raven was gone. However, he was still forced to take care of himself. Starfire was home most of the time by now, especially during the critical months when Bruce was learning how to walk and talk.

Little Bruce was able to gradually stand up and walk a few feet before he would collapsed by the time his first birthday came. It was an interesting time to see how Lydia would react to Bruce getting toys while she didn't. The Logan's realized that they were going to have to explain to Lydia that when a birthday came around that wasn't her own, that she wasn't going to be the center of attention.

While Cyborg loved the fact that he was an Uncle from two different families, he was beginning to feel like the Tower was becoming more of a daycare center. So, he started spending more times at certain clubs in the city. Sometimes with Bumblebee, sometimes with Jinx. And sometimes with a completely different female Titan just to make either Bumblebee or Jinx jealous. Yeah, he wasn't exactly ready to settle down just quite yet.

He liked Jinx because they both could relate to each other, but she managed to be too moody sometimes. And he liked Bumblebee because they had the greatest time together, but she sometimes created drama when there wasn't any, which made Cyborg think that all women were crazy. The girls themselves knew sometimes what they were getting nto when they would take him back, but they must of have their own twisted reasons why they didn't just end their relationship with him. Of course, Cyborg sometimes wondered why Bumblebee would take him back, or why he would take Jinx back. But at the current moment, he was dating neither, and was out clubbing to see if he could find a sane woman for once.


Raven was meditating in their room, above the bed, with her pajamas on as Garfield walked into the room, still having his day's clothes on. He smiled as he made his way over to his clothing drawer, watching her peacefully hovering above their bed.

"Azarath, mentrion, zinthos…." She whispered in her monotone. She rested the back of her hands on her knees, crossing her index finger and her thumb. "Azarath, mentrion, zinthos…."

As soon as Garfield had taken off his T-shirt and put on his other pair of sweatpants, he carefully made his way to the bed. He slowly crawled on his kneels over to her quietly, smiling mischievously, as if he was a predator targeting his prey. He waited until she began chanting again before he sprint up on her and wrapped his arms around her waist, dragging her down.

"Aza—Garfield!" She said as she fell on top of the bed, landing on Garfield's body, which made her interrupt her concentration. As she tried to unravel herself from his grip, he began to kiss her neck. "Down boy." Commanding him as she rolled her eyes, but he wouldn't listen. "What are you doing? I have to meditate."

"You've meditated all day." He whispered in her ear, trying to give reason to his actions. She used her black energy to remove his hands from her waist. "You know, doing that just encourages me want to grab you again."

"Anything I do encourages you. You would grab me at a funeral if you had the chance. There isn't a sacred moment when you won't." She said.

"Well, if it's someone I didn't know that died," He said, thinking about the situation in his head. "I would wait until everyone was looking at the body before I—"

"—I was kidding." She said as she regained her position once more above the bed

"I wasn't." He said in a sly manner. He lay back on his hands as he once again watched her. "Can you teach me?"

"Teach you what? Not to grab me by surprise? I'm afraid we are beyond that point by now."

"No; teach me how to meditate. After all, I taught you how to play videogames."

"Meditate?" She asked, turning around with her powers and opened her eyes. "Since when—"

"Well, I have been reading up on 'what to do after your heart attack' type of books. And some of them talk about meditation and its benefits. Can—I mean—would meditation calm my nerves down?" He asked looking into her eyes. "Or is it not for me?"

"It might help, but if you don't have the patience for reading a boring book, I don't know how much….."

"Oh." He said, looking down, as his ears flopped to the side. She raised her eyebrow and looked to the side before looking up to him again.

"I probably should explain. It's hard enough to get Lydia to meditate, and the last time you tried—well the last two times you tried—we ended up getting into an argument."

"Well, that's because…you know," He said, trying to defend himself, as he looked up. She gave him a perplexed expression, telling him that she didn't understand what he was talking about. "You know…it was before I proposed…the seventh time….we were both alone in a quiet, dark room, and I'm supposed to not be thinking, right? Well, I couldn't sit there—with you—three feet away from me…just casually breathing and with me thinking it was the most sexiest thing in the world, but I couldn't touch you that way, then?" She blushed, but tried to hide it by looking the other way. "Back then, I was sexually frustrated, so I got mad. But now, I can touch you, I can—"

"—Alright, we don't need to get into details here." She interrupted him as she turned her head. "If you are serious—"

"—I am—"

"—Then let's try." She said. "You know what to do; sit up, sit in a lotus position or any position you feel comfortable, find your center" He sat crossed-leg, as he straightened his back. "Close your eyes," She closed her own eyes as he did so. "Breath normally, try not to think about anything, only focusing on your breath. If your mind does wander—which it indubitably it will—try to think of only relaxing things."

The first few minutes, he thought he looked like an idiot as he was just sitting on the bed, trying to breathe. How stupid could he be if he needed to focus on breathing? Day one on Earth, or on any planet, when someone was born, the first they learned to do was to breath. And yet, here he was, doing the most basic human need, on a learning curve.

He wanted to slouch in his spot, because that was more comfortable, but realized he needed to sit up properly. After a minute went by, with this silence between them, he find it quite uneasy, especially since he had his eyes closed and couldn't watch her.

His mind was busy and it was keeping him from focusing on his breathing. Again, he didn't think he was that stupid, but apparently he needed to learn how to breathe properly.

"So, what did you say about your mind wandering?" He asked.

"Think of something that would calm you down." She quietly said. Another minute past.

"Like what?" He asked.

"Anything."

"What specifically?" He asked, smirking as he just annoying her on purpose. She sighed, knowing him too well. "Come on, you have meditated all day already. Go ahead, humor me."

"I'm not biting. If you are serious about learning how to meditate, you need to keep your mind clear or think of a calming scene. I know too well. As soon as I start talking, you'll derail my meditation and I'll regret it in the morning."

"Fine, I'll try to 'clear my head'." He said before he sighed heavily and sat up straight again.

Ok, ok, ok, clear my head, clear my head…..clearing…..I am clearing…..hmm, I wonder when we're going to get rain; it's been months since we have gotten some. We're going to be in a drought if we don't get rain soon. I know a lot of people hate the rain, but rain is necessary to keep water prices down…oh dammit! I'm thinking again. Okay, no thinking, don't think a single thought…stop thinking…stop thinking…stop thinking…should I grow my hair out a bit, to go for that rugged look?—Oh, dammit! He thought.

A couple of minutes past by, with Garfield struggling to not think about anything, only to end up thinking the most random thoughts ever. "Okay, you can stop now." Raven said, without so much as opening her eyes.

"What?"

"You can stop now; when you first start meditation, it should be for a very short period of time, such as five to fifteen minutes. I can meditate for hours, but I'm an expert at it. You cannot climb Mount Everest in one day, you need to work slowly." She said as he got out of the lotus position and took a comfortable spot on bed, lounging about and watching her float above him.

"Climb? Why would I climb when I can just morph into a bird and fly up…..ohhhhhhhh, I get it." He said, realizing that she didn't literally mean for him to climb a mountain. "So, I should take it slowly?"

"It's best if you do; you don't want to fall asleep while you're meditating, which can happen to a beginner."

"So…," He said, crossing his arms as he noticed that she was still meditating. "This is one of those nights you're going to meditate for an hour or so and by the time you're done, I'll be asleep? And I finished my book and can't join you. So, what am I going to do?"

"Watch me like I'm a piece of tofu," She then turned her head around and stared at him. "Like you always do." She turned back around. "I don't even know why you ask anymore."

"And I thought you were a telepath?" He said, smirking. "I just like to ask rhetorical questions."

"No; you like to annoy me."

"But doesn't that just make me so irresistible?"

She allowed a long silence to fall between them before she replied, "Was that a rhetorical question as well?" He smiled at her insult and continued to enjoy the view from his spot.

She looked so peaceful, so calm, as if nothing was even going on in her life. Everything was against her: her emotions, her daughter having meltdowns, her realization that her father's memory still haunted her, her concern for her husband's health, and yet she was able to get away from all that anytime she sat in her lotus position, said her mantra, and relaxed.

She inhaled once again and said her mantra as Garfield watched her quietly from his spot, becoming drowsy as he did so. As he slowly closed his eyes, while lounging with him supporting his head on his hand, Rae, slowly turned her head and looked over. After a few minutes went by, his eyes were shut and she stopped her mantra.

"Are you asleep?"

"No, what would make you think…..I'm…..asleep…." He said as he started to breathe heavily, trying to have fun with her.

"I'm serious." She said as she floated down on the bed and crawled towards the spot next to him. He opened his eyes and saw hers staring back.

"Okay. No, I'm not asleep." He said as she made herself comfortable close to him.

"I want to know how Lydia is doing." He smirked.

"You know how she is doing. It's not like you work a nine hour shift every day. You're home a lot." He said as she looked away from him for a second before looking back at him.

"No, I know. But I want to know how she is really doing. It's not much of a secret that she's Daddy's little girl. You say she learns something every day, but I want to know how she is adjusting."

"Adjusting to what?" He asked, a little confused.

"Adjusting to being my daughter." She said. He understood her and put on a grim look.

"Rae…" He began, about to give a long lecture to her on about how she shouldn't worry about those kinds of things.

"Garfield….I'm serious. I'm not putting myself on a guilt trip, but you know more then I how well she adjusts to her ever increasing powers. Remember her melt down months ago? I'm asking because you don't tell me at the end of some days." She asked, with him nodding. "So?"

"She does very well under stress, as well as when she is happy and laughing." He said loudly before he lowered his voice down a bit to tell her the bit of news he was afraid to tell. "She has—now, don't go crazy—but she has broken more objects around the Tower, which I have cleaned up before anybody notices."

"That's to be expected." She said as he sighed in relief.

"Okay," He said cautiously. "Um…..she had a really bad meltdown a week ago, which I have been trying to cover up. But it had nothing to do with her being worried about her powers, so I didn't think I should bring it up. About a month ago, Bruce was—"

"—Bruce!" She interrupted him. "I don't want her to hurt anybody. Why didn't you tell me about Bruce—"

"—Rae, you misunderstand. I was starting off with Bruce had an ear infection, so Starfire had to take him to the doctor, which then cause Lydia to become upset and destroy something." He said, with her sighing with relief as he gripped her hand. "Rae, you have got to calm down. If she went as far as to hurt someone, I would tell you, but I haven't told you these things because I think it will upset you so. You talk about you worried about me with my heart attack and all, but don't forget about you. I worry about you." He gently rubbed her hand as she looked into his eyes before she lied down and rested her head next to his chest. He put his other arm around her as he continued to rub her hand.

"I just want her to have a normal childhood. A normal one. Not the one I had. If I can give her that, then I have done my part as a parent and I wouldn't feel as guilty every time I tell her to hold back her tears." She said in her monotone, but he could hear the pain in her voice.

"Don't worry about giving her a normal childhood; just keep your focus on her." He said, before adding, "This might be a good time for another session."

"Tomorrow. Right now I'm tired."

"Promise?" He asked in an accusing way as if she wasn't serious.

"Promise." She said to him reassuringly, looking deeply into his eyes. He kissed her chakra before they both drowsed off to sleep.

I'LL GIVE IT TO YA STRAIGHT…..TWO WEEKS….OR THREE….OR FOUR….IS WHEN I PROBABLY COULD UPDATE. UNTIL THEN, SEE YA…..