Hello hello my friends! Foamy's back with another chapter!

Honestly, I wish work didn't consume so much of my time and attention. I'd really like to get the ball rolling better on my stories. *sighs* Oh well, I'll deal with what I got.

Now for my reviewers!

Allen Blaster- I think you'll like this chapter. It's...funny. *snickers*

RPGPersona- Here comes the Doom Patrol! And yes, those are the Final Fantasy's that I meant. Also, this freaking chapter was way bigger than I thought. You guys might have died of hunger from trying to read it if I had merged it with the last chapter. And there's still one more chapter to come from the party! lol

Toto01- I don't have any kinds of plans to stop writing anytime soon. I used to be able to update far more often, but work picked up and started eating up more of my time and energy. orz

Azarath Cat- I'm happy you liked it! I hope you like this one too, it...interesting :3

TheUltimateStar (even though your reviews are for previous chapters)- Thank you! I'm happy to know that you enjoy my story! There is PLENTY of more content for this particular story too, so I'll be keeping it going for quite some time.

And with that, I bid thee adieu. R&R please, I love hearing from you guys and gals!


The whole room froze for a solid minute before Cyborg answered the call.

"Doom Patrol, you are cleared for landing."

"Raven, have you figured out how we're gonna tell them about Emmy?" Beast Boy called out as he leapt over the couch. Raven stood up from her position on the floor and patted down her ruffled hair.

"Of course." She said before walking around the couch. "Come along Emelia. There's someone we want you to meet."

"Who is it, mommy?" The little girl dashed around the furniture to catch up to her parents.

"You'll see." Raven smiled softly at the girl as she approached. She and Beast Boy stood about ten feet from the common room door now, with the other Titans moving towards the kitchen. The changeling and the empath stood with less than six inches between their shoulders. Emelia stood between them at first, but then frown and darted under Raven's cloak. Before the older girl could ask why the younger had done this, the doors opened to reveal Mento, Elastigirl, Robotman, and Negativeman of the Doom Patrol.

Mento opened his mouth to reprimand Beast Boy for not greeting them at the rooftop, but was immediately interrupted as Elastigirl darted past him and wrapped her arms around the birthday boy.

"Garfield! I'm so happy to see you! Happy birthday! Have you opened any presents yet? Have you eaten yet? I'm sorry we were late, Mento thought it would be faster if we went through a tropical storm instead of around it."

Beast Boy chuckled. "I'm happy to see you too Rita, Thanks. Yeah, I got a bunch of really good ones this year, including a car that Cy made me. No, we haven't eaten dinner yet, we were waiting for you guys to show up. It's okay, I'm just happy that I have all of my families here."

"Families?" Mento echoed, glancing at Robotman and Negativeman. The two other men scanned the room and nodded respectfully at Batman.

Rita turned to Raven. "Hello Raven, how are you doing?"

Raven gave the older woman a small smile. "I'm actually doing pretty good, thank you."

Rita gave the younger girl a smile and turned back to her adopted son. "Now Garfield-"

"Wait a moment, Rita." Mento put his hand on her shoulder. "I want to know what Beast Boy meant by 'families'."

The changeling in question shuffled his feet nervously before glancing at Raven. She nodded.

"Well…" Garfield said slowly. "There's you guys, obviously. Then there's the Titans. And more recently…I got another family. Sort of."

"Beast Boy." Mento said sharply. "Stop dilly dallying and get to the point."

The changeling nodded tersely before sweeping his arm in Raven's direction. "I want you to meet my other family."

The member of the Doom Patrol stared at the empath for a moment before a huge smile lit up Rita's face.

"You and Raven are dating? That's great, Garfield! She's such a pretty little girl too, I'm so glad you're together! The first time I saw how close you two were I thought that you would make a cute couple. Tell me, have you kissed yet? The first one is always the sweetest." She sighed in reminiscence and patted Mento's arm, who was nodding approvingly.

Beast Boy paled to a lovely shade of light green. "What? No, mom, please, stop."

On the inside, Raven's mind was going through a nuclear meltdown, with every emoticlone running around in a frenzy of their respective portrait. Outside, however, Raven had paled to the color of white out and frozen.

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about, Beast Boy." Mento lightly scolded him. "She's a pretty young lady and you should be proud to have her at your side."

"Mr. Mento, sir." Raven suddenly said in a small voice. "Beast Boy and I are not dating."

Mento and Rita looked at each other in confusion, then turned back to the teens and spoke as one. "Then what did he mean?"

There was a motion underneath Raven's cloak and it parted a little ways to reveal a little purple eye. The older hero's paused. After a moment, Rita kneeled down and spoke softly.

"Why, hello there. Who are you?"

"Hello." The little girl said shyly from behind Raven's cloak. "My name is Emmy. Who are you?"

Rita gave the child a big smile. "My name is Rita Dayton and I'm Beast Boy's mommy."

Emelia pulled the cloak back and shuffled out a little bit as she looked up at Mento. "Who is he?"

"My name is Steven Dayton and I'm…Beast Boy's father." He said hesitantly. Emelia nodded and fully came out from under the cloak. Rita gave a small delighted gasp.

"My goodness, what a pretty little girl you are! Look at that long and pretty blonde hair! And you have such big sparkly eyes too!"

Emmy smiled. "Thank you."

"She's so polite too!" Rita beamed. "My goodness, you're a little angel, aren't you?"

Nooooot quite. Raven thought to herself. Emelia, on the other hand, had started looking back and forth between Mento and Rita. After a moment, she turned her attention to the older woman.

"If you're daddy's mommy and daddy, does that make you my nana and pawpaw?" She asked with big hopeful eyes.

All members of the Doom Patrol stared at the little girl with blank faces before turning to Beast Boy. He smiled weakly. "Surprise?"

"Garfield." Rita said calmly. "This little girl just called you daddy."

"Yessem."

"And just who, praytell, is the mother?"

"That…would be me." Raven quietly.

Rita looked at the empath, looked at Beast Boy, then looked back at Emelia. She appeared lost in thought for a moment before speaking again. "Mathmatically, this isn't adding up. This little girl is at least four years old. You've only been a Titan for about four years, but I'm very certain Raven isn't the type of girl to just jump in bed with you on a whim after just meeting you."

"You would be very correct." Raven nodded furiously.

"Right." Mento nodded. "So then…who is she?"

"A clon e of us." The empath and changeling said at the same time. The Daytons couldn't keep their surprise from their faces as they looked at the little girl.

"A…clone?" Mento kneeled down to inspect the little girl. She stood very still as he did so, much to his approval.

"I don't understand…why is there a clone of you two?" Rita asked as she too inspected the girl. Sure enough, she had facial features of Beast Boy but also undoubtedly had a good bit of Raven in her too. The big purple eyes and tiny nose were a dead giveaway of the being the empath's little girl.

"The why hasn't been answered just yet." Batman said as he approached. He held out a folder, which Mento took from him as he stood up. He opened it without hesitating and began to scan every piece of info in there rapidly.

Several minutes later, the older here looked up at Batman. "This is everything?"

"Everything that we have, yes."

"You gave this to me awfully easy considering that the Doom Patrol and the Justice League don't exactly see eye to eye, Batman."

"I didn't ask the Justice League to let me give this to you. I did it because I wanted to." Batman said humorlessly.

Mento raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"Because anything concerning Emelia concerns Beast Boy and Raven since they are her DNA donors and have taken her in as their daughter. Things of the family nature concerning Beast Boy also concern you, his legal guardians. It is your right to have this information."

As startling as Batman's answer was, Mento managed to maintain his composure. "Well…I thank you for this, Batman."

The dark knight merely nodded and returned to where he had been standing.

Rita stood and took the folder from her husband. She opened it and began reading it, pacing in a small circle off to the side. Mento, on the other hand, was standing and staring at Emelia, who stared back at him. He had the strangest feeling that Emelia could tell that he was having a telepathic conversation with his wife as she discussed the contents of the papers with him.

"Excuse me?" Emelia said suddenly. Mento's eyebrow rose and Elastigirl stopped pacing to look at the child.

Emelia's voice was small and shy as she spoke, her little hands twisting the hem of her shirt. "Um…I know I'm not really mommy and daddy's baby, but they let me call them mommy and daddy anyways and love me and take care of me and stuff. I know they don't have to do it because me and Martin came from glass bottles, not from wherever babies come from. The first thing I ever saw was a scary old man with one red eye. I don't wanna see him again, I wanna stay here with mommy and daddy. Mommy's quiet and really smart and teaches me and bathes me and feeds me and other stuff and she keeps an eye on daddy so that he behaves. Daddy's really fun to play with and he feeds me and stuff too and he keeps mommy from being lonely and he chases away all my bad dreams by telling me that him and mommy love me more than those dreams can ever scare me and and and…um…"

The Daytons stared wordlessly at the little girl before them as she struggled not to cry. Had anyone glanced at Raven, they would have seen her visibly shaking from forcing herself to not snatch up Emelia and comfort her. Emelia continued on.

"Um…well…I know you're not really my nana and pawpaw but daddy loves you enough to call you mommy and daddy so…I was hoping you would let me call you nana and pawpaw because I love daddy as much as he loves you and…um…I…" The little girl trailed off as she lost her train of thought.

Two heartbeats later, Mento knelt down in front of Emelia and spoke quietly. "Can you tell me your full name?"

Emmy nodded and sniffled. "Yes sir. My name is Emelia Annabelle Logan."

"Well then, Emelia Annabelle Logan…" Mento said before pulling his mask off to reveal graying brown hair, piercing blue eyes, and an old and ragged but handsome face. "My name is Steve Dayton and it looks like I'm gonna be your pawpaw from now on."

Elastigirl was right beside him. "And I'm Rita Dayton. I'll be your nana."

Had anyone noticed the ripple of a happiness-filled shockwave burst from Emelia, they might have questioned it. Instead, every person in the room suddenly began to feel extremely happy as they watched the little girl wrap her arms around her new grandparents as best as she could. A happy smile plastered on her face, Raven couldn't help but glance at Beast Boy as she thought about how their happy little family was growing.

She paused. Our family?

However, this thought was interrupted as Rita looked up from hugging Emelia. "I see why you aren't dating. So tell me, have you picked a date yet? Please tell me it's in the winter."

The teens glanced at each other before looking back at the older woman. Beast Boy said, "A date?" right as Raven said, "For what?"

Rita laughed. "For the wedding, of course!"

For the changeling, everything froze for several heartbeats. Then Beast Boy's eyes popped out of his skull and his voice raised several octaves. "WEDDING?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"

Raven, on the other hand, did absolutely nothing. She didn't move, she didn't think, she didn't breathe. Everything had come to a complete standstill for her. That is until voices in the back of her head spoke up.

Marry Beast Boy? Hmmm…That's one way to make sure he's ours. Count me in! (Jealousy)

Get married to Beastie the bestie? Wooooo, let's do it! (Happy)

B-b-but he's dating Rose, he can't marry us! (Timid)

But getting married takes so much effort... (Rude)

If we marry Beast Boy, do I get to see his muscles more often? (Brave)

I'm not sure this is the most logical course of action. I mean yes, it would benefit us as Emelia enters school and when obtain our own home, but he clearly has feelings for another girl so… (Knowledge)

MARRY?! *faints* (Affection)

I wonder what his lips taste like? (Unknown giggling voice)

*irritated sigh* We're clearly not ready for this line of thinking. Taking evasive action! (Anger)

Please note that "taking evasive action" refers to Raven's sudden flux in power.

Said flux in power resulted in every glass object in the vicinity of the empath to simply explode, showering the tower with glass both inside and out. As the startled Titans and Doom Patrol looked about, they all couldn't help but notice that Raven still hadn't moved.

"I've been working so hard to not get her to blow up and you went and did it with this crazy marriage stuff!" Beast Boy groaned aloud. "Raven wouldn't marry me anyways."

Something about his impetuousness roused Raven from her stupor. She turned her head slightly and looked at him as she regained her composure. "It does sound like a terrible idea. I can't even get him to put on clean socks every day."

He looked at her confusedly. "Are you seriously still going on about that, Rae? What's wrong with wearing the same pair a few days in a row, it's not like they're dirty or anything."

"Seriously? A person's feet sweat throughout the day, especially yours since you're so active and wear those clodhoppers every day."

Beast Boy glanced down at his silver boots. "They aren't clodhoppers…"

The Daytons and Titans watched quietly as the heated debate went from his shoe care to his hygiene within minutes. After that it went to his bad eating habits and how he didn't brush his teeth enough, all of which could negatively impact Emelia's view of these things. Beast Boy defending himself by saying that that's what he had Raven for, to make sure Emelia's habits didn't become like his and to keep his in check.

"What, so you expect me to take care of you for the rest of your life?" Raven retorted.

"No, I don't expect anything out of ya Rae. But best friends look out for each other, don't they?" Beast Boy chuckled.

Raven rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder. "That they do, but I'm not babying you. Emelia is enough for me, I don't need any more kids to take care of right now."

"I don't know, I wouldn't mind some more grandbabies if they're this cute." Rita said slyly as she sent her husband an amused telepathic message They sound like they're already married. Beast Boy's laughing stopped and Raven's face blanked out once more, a faint blush on her cheeks. Only this time there was a snort as someone tried to contain their amusement. Multiple heads rotated to look at Rose, who couldn't hold it in as she gazed upon the changelings' and empaths' startled faces.

"I'm sorry, but the look on your faces are priceless right now!" She laughed and leaned against the arm of the couch. Rita's eyebrow rose.

"And just who is this young lady? I don't remember her amongst the Titans lineup." She asked.

"That," Raven deadpanned. "Would be Beast Boy's girlfriend."

Beast Boy could feel several sets of eyes burning holes in the back of his head, so he didn't turn to look at them. Rose, on the other hand, got up and approached them. With a cheery grin on her face, she slung an arm around Beast Boy.

And then slung her other arm around Raven.

Disregarding the empath's appalled expression, Rose spoke to the older hero's. "Hiya. My name is Rose and I'm the chick that Beast Boy goes on dates with."

"Well…you certainly are a…" Mento trailed off.

"Bright young lady." Rita picked up his slack instantly. "It's nice to meet you. I trust Beast Boy is treating you well?"

"Yes ma'am. We have all kinds of fun and whatnot, going to clubs and little parties and outings and stuff!" Rose's grin widened. "He's a goofy ball of fun and a good dancer."

"Is that so?" Rita inquired. "I wasn't aware that Beast Boy was so active an individual."

Said changeling in question suddenly found himself very interest in a speck on the ceiling as more holes were visually burned into him.

"Look, as fun as this talk it, we came to give the bean sprout his presents and for whatever Raven called us for." Robotman said suddenly, his metallic voice breaking the silence in the room. Mento nodded.

"That's right." He said before reaching into his pouch and pulling out a small silver box. With a grin of his own, he tossed it to his adopted son. "Go try it on."

Confused, Beast Boy took the box and left the room. Her eyes half closed, Raven concentrated on the changeling as his emotions went from confused to surprise to pleased. Her brow furrowed, she continued her monitoring of him until he was about to reenter the room some time later.

"Woah." Rose said as he reentered. Silently, Raven agreed.

When Beast Boy had left he was wearing his old Doom Patrol uniform. It was a black two piece suit with a broad purple stripe starting at his neck and ending at his waist. When he left, he was wearing his signature silver gloves, belt, and boots as well.

But now?

The whole suit in and of itself was different. He was wearing a one piece body suit now. The gloves, boots, and belt were gone. The forearms and hands were white, with a six inch wide white stripe running across the tops of his arms to his collar bone and chest. The bottom side of his arms was now a dark red patch that ran all the way to his ribcage and down to his waist. A broad and white strip started at his collar and ended at his waist, which was also encased in white. Aside from a broad white stripe running down the sides of his legs, his thighs and lower legs were the same dark red. The 'boots' of the suit were white as well.

(*A/N: Please Google Beast Boy for a visual of the suit, it's my first time describing it and I'm not sure if I did it justice)

A little voice spoke up in the back of Raven's head.

Okay, so, I know we once said all we were interested in was tall, dark, handsome, and smart, but then turned around and admitted we found short, goofy, and affectionate was just as good. I'd like to point out that short, goofy, affectionate, and RIPPED is…hehe…(Brave)

Sweet Azar, are you drooling?! (Knowledge)

WILL YOU SHUT UP?! I'M NOT SOME STARRY EYED SCHOOLGIRL! (Raven)

YOU shut up, Raven. YOU'RE the one ogling him! (Rude)

"Hey Raven." Rose whispered. "Beast Boy just went from cutie to hunky, don't ya think?"

YOU KEEP YOUR DIRTY PAWS OFF OF HIM YOU WHITE HAIRED SL- (Jealousy)

"What's a hunk?" Raven asked to derail her train of thought. Inside her head, Jealousy was cursing up a storm so fierce that even Anger was speechless.

"A really hot guy."

Raven looked at the girl, her eyebrow raised. "You're going to ask me that question?"

Rose stared back at her fiercely. "Of course I am, Raven. You can hide it from him but not me."

To the white haired girls' amusement, the violet haired girl froze. Chuckling, she left Raven standing there as she walked up to Beast Boy. "Lookin' good BB!"

His ego inflating, Beast Boy struck several body building poses. "All hail the king of the jungle, baby!"

"Beast Boy." Mento called out.

"Yessir?"

"Stop flashing your feathers and get over here and show your mother."

"Yes sir…" Beast Boy rolled his eyes and stomped over to the Doom Patrol. On his way, he paused in front of Raven. "Heya Rae…whatcha think?"

A little dry mouthed at the sight in front of her, Raven looked up and down while maintaining a distant expression. "Honestly? It looks like it should clash with your skin color. But it actually looks pretty good on you."

To her surprise, his ego inflated tenfold at her compliment. A huge smile lit up on his face and he thanked her before dashing off to his adopted parents, who were quietly fawning over Emelia.

Off to the side, Batman was watching the whole spectacle silently. He was mulling over giving Beast Boy his gift now when he felt a small tugging on his cloak. Looking down, he found Martin looking up at him with wide eyes.

"Mr. Batterman, are you my papa's papa?"

The dark knight stared at the little boy for a long moment before nodding. "In a sense…yes."

"So thatta makes you my gran'papa right?" Martin asked, tugging eagerly on Batmans' cape.

"Hm…I suppose."

A huge smile lit up on the boy's face. "Gran'papa, up!"

"Martin!" Emmy called out. "You gotta say please!"

"Grandpapa, up please!" Martin recited dutifully. To Robin's astonishment, there was a ghost of a smile on the dark knight's face as he lifted the boy up and held him.

Back over with the Doom Patrol (plus Beast Boy, Raven, and Emelia), things were taking a more interesting turn.

"So Raven, what is it that you called us for?" Mento asked. "Aside from Beast Boy's birthday."

"This is going to take a minute to discuss. I suggest we all sit down." Raven nodded to the couches. The whole group moved over there and got comfortable. Mento and Rita sat with Emelia between them, Robotman and Negativeman sat off to the side and chatted with Kid Flash, Jinx, and Bumblebee, and Beast Boy and Raven sat on a love seat that the changeling moved in front of his adopted parents.

"Alright Mento, what do you know about my powers?" Raven asked the older hero.

"Hmm…let's see. You're half demon and use magic. That's pretty much all I know." Mento shrugged. "Beast Boy told us about you as a person, not as a thing."

"Oh he did, did he?" Raven cast the meekly smiling shapeshifter a glance.

"It was nothing bad, my dear." Rita smiled at her.

Raven nodded and started to speak. "Alright, here we go. What follows is a summarization of my own abilities and, in essence, a glimpse of what Emelia may or may not inherit. I have a bit of psionic power, primarily advanced telekinesis and empathy, along with a basic grasp of thought projection and a manifested state of intangibility. My spiritual powers pertain to astral projection and soul-sealing. Both of those are innate abilities of mine. My magic, however, was taught to me. With my magic I can heal, travel though time, create and control the element of darkness and occasionally light, and I have access to even more advanced telekinesis spells. I can technically use spells from every elemental category, but since my affinity is darkness the rest drain me much more rapidly. I've dabbled in necromancy, having once used a spell to bring the soul of a monk to the mortal plane to teach me an advanced meditation technique when my powers where manifesting stronger. Emelia, on the other hand, shows exceptional psionic abilities. She can turn herself and others intangible, project her emotions on others, her mind reading is strong enough to learn a language after listening to someone think it for only a few minutes, and I'm fairly certain she will be developing telekinesis soon."

"She can't shapeshift into animals like Garfield?" Rita interrupted.

Raven shook her head. "Not yet, but I won't rule it out as a possibility. She has his enhanced sense of smell and hearing, which means she probably has his enhanced sight as well. Whether or not she gets his reflexes…I don't know."

"Alright." Mento set his chin into his hand. "So what did you need me for?"

"To be frank, Mento, I'm very certain Emelia's psionic ability will, if it doesn't already, outclass my own. It'll put her up there somewhere with you and Martian Manhunter in terms of psionic power. The problem is that she's already manifesting it. In her sleep, she has twice pulled Nightmares from the astral realm into this one, which means her control wanes when she sleeps."

Mento whistled. "Nightmares huh? I've run into my fair share of them. Not terrible to get rid of, but there's never an end to them."

Raven nodded once more. "And if something bigger happens to notice…"

The older hero frowned. "That…could be really bad."

"Exactly." Raven grimaced. "You'll have to excuse my language for saying that there's no way in hell that I'd allow that to happen. As such, I called you here to perform a procedure that was done to me as I grew up."

She paused and pointed at her forehead. "Know what these are?"

"A chakra stone and bindu, yeah."

"We're going to put one of each on Emelia and tether her psyche to them so that the excess energy from her mind doesn't leech out and merge dimensions anymore."

Mento frowned. "I've never done something like that before."

Raven shrugged. "I figured as much, but I remember the procedure fair enough. Beast Boy and I have already procured a good stone for her chakra and applying the bindu is even easier. As for the tethering process, I can walk you through it."

Mento nodded. "Alright, let's get to work."


The Titans, Beast Boy included, watched silently as Raven applied the bindu and chakra stone to Emelia's forehead. To her credit, Emelia didn't even so much as flinch when Raven magically bonded the stone to her.

"Alright, that was easier than I expected." Raven said with a little grin. "Thank you for sitting still, Emelia."

The little girl just grinned up at her mother as she rubbed new facial jewelry. "You're welcome mommy. It feels funny, but I'm okay with it."

Nodding, Raven gestured to Beast Boy to resume his seat next to her. "I need you here for this part since you and I resonate with her mind the most. Having you here and near will act as a both a barrier and boundary to keep her psyche in synch."

"A barrier?" The changeling asked.

"Your little soiree with the nightmares wasn't unnoticed." Raven smiled smugly. "There's a warning in the astral realm to avoid an angry green monster right now."

Beast Boy could only chuckle as Raven turned to the other people in the room.

"What is about to happen is going to freak you out. As to what it is, I am going to temporarily merge this area of this dimension with that of the astral realm. Doing so will allow Mento and I to fully access Emelia's latent psychic abilities and cast our tether. While we are in there, DO NOT LEAVE THE ROOM. I will not repeat myself and I will not go after you if you leave. The astral realm is as old and infinite as existence itself. Going after you would be foolish in any and all definitions and contexts."

The other members of the Doom Patrol and the other Titans nodded in acquiescence. Starfire scooped up Martin and Fixit sat next to Bumblebee on the couch. Batman stood by the window. Nodding more to herself than to them, she turned back to Mento and took her lotus positions. Within moments, she was hovering in the air as she began her incantation.

"Seret Manck Velb Furih Hellel Selrbek Vasab Wetle…"

This chant continued for about ten minutes, in which a visible change in reality could be observed. The first thing was that any and all light dimmed considerably. Even the sunlight had darkened, leaving the room as if a dark storm cloud was hovering above the tower. As for the interior, everything had darkened to a dull gray or in some cases straight up turned black. The very air itself was energized and, if you thought hard enough, could be visibly seen to ripple on occasion. In addition to this, there seemed to be the strangest motes of light floating about the room and even outside the tower. If one went to touch one, it would shy away and float in the opposite direction for a time.

"Hey Rae…this is freaky." Beast Boy said quietly as he patted at light mote.

"The astral realm is unique amongst the different dimensions. It contains any and all conscious thought that comes from or came from a sentient being. It literally is the sum of all thought in existence."

Huh, that's weird. Beast Boy thought to himself. I wonder…if I go into Raven's room, can I see how she thinks about me?

To his astonishment, a light mote gently popped out of his head and wafted away in the non-existent breeze. As tempted as Raven was to grasp it to find out what he was thinking, she turned to the task at hand. "Alright Mento, I'm going to manifest the Primary Threads now."

"Primary threads?" Someone asked. Raven didn't turn around, but it sounded like Kid Flash had asked the question.

"Yes. The Primary Threads are part of the bindings of existence. They are solely for oneself, the connection between mind, body, and soul of a person."

"Another Hindu thing?" Beast Boy asked.

Raven shook her head. "No, it's just a part of everything that is. Now let me concentrate."

She closed her eyes and began to speak softly in a language that Beast Boy could not understand, let alone pronounce anything in. As she spoke, the 'air' rippled from her outwards towards Emelia. As they gently bounced off the little girls' body, four brightly colored lines formed.

Raven opened her eyes and took in the sight before her with a small grin. "My first time doing this and it worked."

Mento stared at the little girl. "Raven…I have no idea what I'm doing."

Nodding yet again, Raven began to instruct him to slowly take the 'threads' and start peeling small segments of them apart using his psionic powers. The result was that the threads became frayed like an old rope. The uncomfortable look on Emelia's face made Raven speed up the process by assisting Mento in attaching the frayed bits together with frayed bits from the others threads. Soon enough, all the ends had met other ends and the whole spider web-like mass was a lovely shade of purple. On end of the main body of threads was around Emelia's heart while the other end had been moved to her chakra stone.

"Perfect." Raven whispered to herself as she unconsciously took Beast Boy's hand in her own and squeezed it. Beast Boy, so lost in the weird wiggling mess of purple strings that was apparently his surrogate daughter's soul, didn't even notice she had done this. He didn't notice when he squeeze her hand back either.

"Mommy, what are all the other pretty strings?" Emelia asked as she looked around.

Raven, wide eyed, sat forward and took Emelia's hands in her own. "Are you saying that you can see the Threads of Fate without a spell?"

Emelia's face screwed up in confusion. "I don't know, mommy. I just see pretty strings attaching to everyone."

"What is she talking about, Raven?" Mento asked with a frown. "Threads of fate?"

Ignoring his question, Raven sat back and took a moment to think. It was another spell she had never cast, but since things were going so well…

"Zeeren falas duloloth xeknium tkbol vekkun…"

Within moments, everyone in the room had a pretty good reason to gasp as dozens of bright and multicolor strings manifested. There were an almost uncountable number coming from each person and leading to another. Though no one said it, they all felt like balls of yarn.

"What you see before you are the Threads of Fate." Raven said, drawing everyone's attention. "They are literally the connections and bonds we have made throughout our lifetime. The different colors represent different things."

"Light blue?" Cyborg called out as he traced one thread back to Robin.

"Respect."

Robotman looked at a string connecting him and Mento. "Yellow?"

"It has to do with knowledge, so I assume educated conversations with someone you trust."

"Red?" This came from Starfire, whose eyes had traced one red string coming from her. It led away from the Titans and out the window into the stars.

"Anger. That person makes you angry." Raven followed the alien princesses' gaze. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that one leads to Blackfire."

"Dark blue?" Bumblebee called out, noting the string that ran between Jinx and Cyborg.

"Sorrow. You have regrets with this person."

"Go figure." Cyborg mumbled. Kid Flash also noted this dark blue string between his friend and his girlfriend and made a mental note to ask her about it later.

"Green?" Negativeman asked as he viewed the veritable spider web of green strings between all of the Titans and the separate one between the Doom Patrol.

"Bravery. That person or people makes you feel and act bravely."

"Purple?" This came from Rita, who was tracing said string back to her husband.

"Love. You love this person a lot." Raven said this quietly as she shifted uncomfortably. She glanced off to the side and noted that there was no purple string connecting Rose and Beast Boy. A sense of relief washed over her. She still had a chance.

"Black?" This came from Batman, who had spotted the small and barely noticeable threads coming from Beast Boy. There were two, one reaching out (but not connected to) Raven and the other reaching out (but not connected to) Rose.

"Hmm…I'm guessing depression? I'd say hate, but I know hate is blood red."

Emelia, on the other hand, had spotted something much more interesting. She wiggled free of her surrogate grandfathers grasp and scrambled between her parents. She started looking her mother over first, then her father. After a moment, she wound up behind them, still looking.

"What are you doing?" Raven asked.

Emelia looked at her mother and smiled. "Nothing?"

"Mmhmm…" Raven lightly glared at her daughter suspiciously, but turned her gaze away to answer more questions about the strings. The little girl glanced at her father, who was lost in the colors. Grinning to herself, she reached out and grabbed the purple string that came out of Beast Boy's back.

Her grin growing wider, she grabbed the tiny purple string coming out of Raven's back.

She looked at them in her hands. They both badly frayed with patches of black here and there. It was obvious that her mommy and daddy had been really hurt by someone before and that they were both afraid of loving each other. But that's what didn't make sense to her. Why would they be afraid of loving each other? Why can't they be happy instead? Then she really could have a happy family! With this thought in mind, Emelia pulled the strings together.

They recoiled from each other instantly.

A frown on her face, she pulled them together again. Once more, they recoiled from each other. Annoyed, the little girl pulled them together as close as she could and tried to tie them into knots. That action failed when the knots simply drifted apart, untouching.

Pouting, the little girl released both threads and watched them float there. There had to be some way to…wait. There! Two tiny frayed pieces were drifting closer to each other than the rest. Maybe it was a good starting spot?

This time, Emelia didn't hesitate to split her eyes into four and focus everything she had into the strings. She took them in each hand and pushed them together.

Very slowly, the strings began to change. The blackened tips lessened in color to a deep and rich purple like the bulk of the thread. After the color change was complete, they slowly began to entwine. Beast Boy and Raven visibly shuddered as the strings attached to one another. Raven put one hand down beside her on the couch and leaned upon it to discuss something with Beast Boy. When she finished, Beast Boy put his hand down half onto hers and talked excitedly about something. Emelia smiled.

Neither teen had noticed their hands touching, but both had shivered a little bit when it happened.


For some reason she couldn't explain, Raven felt absolutely ecstatic after separating the two dimensions some time later. She felt light on her feet, like her head was in the clouds, after having gotten to have such a nice talk with Beast Boy. It was a small chat about the way the threads had been entwined amongst themselves, such as a light blue thread wrapped around a light purple thread. Said thread was actually connecting the empath and changeling.

"Aww, so you do like me!" He had teased while sticking his tongue out.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Of course I do, Beast Boy. I found my best friend when he took his mask off."

He had let out a small chuckle. "I've played the clown for so long I don't know where the mask ends and I begin anymore."

"I think that you should take the mask off more often." Raven had said quietly.

He looked at her curiously before giving her a little shrug and a wry grin. "I'll think about it."

Raven cast her gaze about the room, noting how energetic everyone was now. She couldn't keep the small smile from forming on her face as she looked at Beast Boy. He was sitting at the kitchen counter talking to Cyborg, who was pulling out various foods from the refrigerator. A couple of dairy-free cakes took up a good portion of space on the tabletop and all kinds of food adorned the counter as well. To her surprise, there was meat on the counter, a rather tasty looking turkey. It was sitting next to a huge bowl of what smelled like garlic mashed potatoes and another, equally large bowl of macaroni and cheese. Probably dairy free.

"Is this a birthday party or Thanksgiving?" She smirked as she approached the counter. Beast Boy looked up and beamed when he saw her grin.

Cyborg shrugged. "Well, it's a party with a bunch of people. Might as well have legit food, ya know? Besides, too much sugar is bad for the kids."

Raven raised an eyebrow at the cybernetic man.

Within moments, he buckled under the pressure of her stare. "Okay okay! I was hungry when I started cooking and I just couldn't stop making stuff that sounded good with all that I already made!"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Typical Cyborg, thinking with his stomach."

The tin man stuck his tongue out at her before resuming cooking. The empath shook her head and cast her gaze about the room once more. Robin was sitting across from Batman and Mento, discussing battle tactics and stealth operations, Starfire was sitting with Jinx, Bumblebee, and Elastigirl talking about Martin and Emelia, who were sitting on the floor with Rose doing a puzzle. Robotman talked to Fixit for several minutes before he opened a panel on his left bicep and showed something to the android. Fixit peered into the casing for a moment before several tools hovered into sight around him. Where they had come from she wasn't sure, but she watched as he went to work fixing something on the copper colored hero. Drawing her gaze from the mildly interesting spectacle, the empath noticed Negativeman laid back in a recliner with one of her books in his hand. His emotions, normally more apathetic than how she used to be, seemed to be very relaxed as his dark eyes swept the pages. She glanced at the cover of the book.

Shakespeare? I don't remember leaving that out…

"Hey Rae?"

The empath turned her head to find her green companion looking out at everyone like she had been. "Hmm?"

"This…this is really nice, ya know?" He said quietly. His emotions were all over the place, but he was ridiculously happy right now.

"That it is." She agreed. He glanced over at her, his eyes sparkling with merriment.

"I've got one of the things I've always wanted more than any tofu, comic, or video game." He grinned.

She couldn't keep her eyes off of his as she asked, "What's that?"

"A big, happy family." His grinned widened.

Raven drew her eyes away from his and half closed them in thought as her stomach suddenly became very bubbly. "Yes…a family is nice to have."

There was a sudden flux in his emotions. He went from being happy to nervous and excited at the same time. She turned her head to look at him and found him licking his lips. Judging from the unusual look in his eyes, he had something he wanted to say.

Her curiosity overwhelmed her and she leaned towards him a bit. "Yes Beast Boy? What is it?"

"I…um…well…" He stammered, his face turning bright red. Raven leaned in a bit more, her eyes practically sparkling with curiosity. "I…well, the thing is that I-"

"Dinner time!" Cyborg shouted suddenly, causing the empath and changeling to jump in fright. A nearby stool exploded into wooden slivers and Raven glared at her brother figure.

"Did you REALLY have to startle me like that?!" She shouted. Despite being considerably taller than the half demoness, the cybernetic man cowered under her harsh glare.

"I'm sorry Rae! I didn't mean it, honest!" He whimpered.

"It's Raven, not Rae!" She growled.


Good God, I can't believe I almost confessed to Raven! Cheesus Crust, how the heck did that even happen?! Beast Boy mentally shuddered as he set Emelia on a stool between himself and aforementioned empath. I mean seriously, first we come out of that asstrail realm or whatever and I'm feeling all bubbly and stuff, then me and Raven have a nice little moment and there I almost admit everything? What the heck dude?! That's a terrible idea! Raven doesn't like me like that. I mean seriously, what if Rose finds out I like Raven too? Crap, Rose is here! She would have heard everything! Maaaaaaan, I'm SO glad Cy spoke up when he did.

He sighed to himself as he set about making a plate of food. He didn't catch the glance Raven shot him while he piled a large salad onto his plate, along with some mashed potatoes, green beans, and macaroni and cheese. He would probably be breaking his no dairy rule today, but since milk came from willing cows it wasn't so bad.

After making his plate, he grabbed a little one for Emelia. He put mashed potatoes and mac & cheese on her plate then glanced at the turkey. Shuddering, he reached for the carving knife only for his hand to be intercepted by a smaller pale hand. He followed the limb up to Raven's face.

"It's okay Beast Boy, I'll do it. I know you hate it." She said gently.

"I…uh…thanks Rae." He nodded and looked away as he tried not to blush at her kind gesture. He locked eyes with Rose, who was sitting on his other side.

"Aww, what's wrong BB? Scared of a little meat?" She joked.

"Dude, I've been all the animals you guys are eating. It'd be like cannibalism!" He protested.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh, come off it Beast Boy. Humans are omnivorous. We're supposed to eat plants and meat. Stop being silly about it."

Beast Boy's brow furrowed in annoyance. "It's not silly! It's respecting other life!"

"Oh, don't worry BB, I respect it." Rose said before taking a big bite out of a piece of turkey. "I just respect how delicious it tastes with gravy!"

The changeling huffed and turned away. "You sound like Cyborg."

Rose rolled her eyes. "At least someone understands."

"Whatever." Beast Boy started eating, effectively killing the conversation between the two.

Scattered about the room, most people couldn't help but overhearing the conversation. Cyborg and Robin traded glances, as did Jinx, Bumblebee, and Starfire. Rita and Steve also traded glances. It was very much unlike Beast Boy to actually get upset about the whole meat eating thing. Normally, he took it in stride and joked about his friends eating it and tried to get them over to the 'tofu side', as he called it.

He looked kinda pissed off right now though.

On the other side of him, Raven was a strange mixture of highly amused and seething with anger. She was happy that Beast Boy was unhappy with his girlfriend (a part of her said she should feel terrible for being happy about that but she didn't care), though she was also angry that Rose would disrespect his ideals like that. Cyborg did something similar, but he never downright rude about it. It was a game between the changeling and tin man, something that only the closest of friends could joke about.

Fortunately, said cybernetic man popped up at this moment and set a glass of something green in front of Beast Boy.

"Here ya go bro. I Googled how to make a smoothie for ya. Happy birthday man." Cy said with a grin.

"Seriously dude?" Beast Boys' face lit up. "Thanks man!"

He took a tentative sip and a surprised look lit up his face. It was really good. He slurped half of it down before releasing a small but satisfied burp.

"Duuuude, that is soooo good!" He grinned before turning to Emelia. "Hey Emmy, wanna try some of daddy's drink?"

Emelia made a face. "But daddy, your drinks always taste funny."

"Aww, come on! Don't knock it 'til you try it!"

"I don't wanna try iiitttt!" Emmy pouted. Beast Boy opened his mouth to tell her to try it instead of asking (something he very rarely did) when a pale hand wrapped around the glass and pulled it away from him.

Imagine his, and Emelia's, surprise when Raven took a decent sized gulp of the drink before setting it down.

The empath, not noticing the shocked expressions of the people around her, made a couple of faces as she explored the new taste. After a moment, she turned to her daughter. "I don't see what the fuss is about, Emelia. It's an odd taste, but it isn't bad. Besides, you've eaten everything else we've put in front of you except tofu and chocolate, so what's wrong with this?"

Emelia looked at the glass, then her mother. "I don't like spinach. It's yucky."

Raven pat the little girl on the head. "You should have told us sooner. We wouldn't make you eat it if you don't like it."

And with that, Raven turned back to her plate of food. Beast Boy sat there staring at the glass in his hand, Raven's lip prints clear as day on the sides. After several agonizing minutes he downed the rest of the glass, relishing the faint taste that he would now associate with Raven's lips.

On the other side of him, a certain white haired girl fumed.

On the other side of the room Jinx, Bumblebee, and Starfire sat there staring, slackjawed, at Raven's boldness.

And sitting next to her husband, Rita Dayton smiled. After all…neither teen had actually said they wouldn't marry the other.


DUUUN DUUUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN!