9.

It did not take long for Titan Tower's main foyer to quickly resemble the set of NYPD Blue. Raven sat Cerise down on the couch, and the Titans stood around her in a half circle. Of all the questions to ask, Robin started, but only after Gregori Ivan...whatever had the first sentence of his speech past his lips;

"I would like to say," he said, in an impossibly heavy Russian accent. "That I am fine. I have sustained no injuries nor have I had any of my personal effects stolen," and on he went. The Titans could not have cared less, they were all focussing on the little girl they now had as a guest.

"Ivanovich is your father?" Robin asked. Everyone could tell his mind was manufacturing questions faster than he could ever ask them, and certainly faster than Cerise would be able to ask them.

"But you're not Russian," Raven stated. Cerise hadn't spoken very often, but when she did, her accent was ninety percent American, with perhaps a small flavour of something European. It was, however, nowhere near the Russian accent that Ivanovich was speaking with.

"Neither is father..." Cerise said without looking up. Her cheeks were glowing red against her pale skin.

"He sure sounds Russian..." Cyborg said. He had turned back to the screen and was half listening to the Russian man on it, catching a few of the heavily accented words.

"He's lying...he always lies..." Raven was visibly hurt by that, Starfire caught it out of the corner of her eye, a slight slacking of the shoulders and buckling of the knees. Raven caught herself quickly, however.

"I think we must talk with this...Gregori," Starfire said authoritatively.

"I'll show him talk..." Raven replied through clenched teeth. Her eyes briefly glowed an intense red.

"Wait a minute...listen to this," Cyborg said. He scooped the remote off of the couch's arm, and turned the volume up a few notches,

"And that is why I must ask these...Teen Titans for their personal protection, starting immediately."

"He wants us to protect him?" Beast Boy said, clearly surprised.

"...interesting. Maybe we should have been paying more attention." Robin said, pinching his chin and quickly disappearing back into thought.

"It doesn't matter, he wants us there, I say we pay him a visit, right now."

"No...please don't leave me!" Cerise suddenly shot off the couch and grabbed two fist fulls of Raven's cloak. Raven caught herself from falling, and after a moment of confusion, her mind caught up to what was going on, and she wrapped her arms lightly around the girls shoulders, she felt those horrible scars under the tips of her fingers. Raven looked up at the group with a look that closely resembled sympathy.

"Raven, you stay here with Cerise, we'll go." Raven made to protest, but before she could, Cerise tightened her grip on her cloak, and buried her face deeper. Suddenly, leaving the tower seemed like far less of a priority.

"Ok..." Raven separated herself from Cerise and dropped down to her haunches. She clutched Cerise by the shoulder's, hard enough to be reassuring. "It's ok, I'll stay here." Cerise was near to crying, but looking into Raven's intense indigo eyes seemed to calm her. She nodded nervously. Raven stood and placed one hand between Cerise's should blades.

"Be careful, guys," Raven said, knowing that this Gregori, or whatever his name really was, was capable of just about anything. Robin nodded, which apparently counted as a resounding affirmative for the entire group.

"Titans, we're out of here."

10.

The VIP's from all those European countries were holed up in the finest hotel in town. Outside it was a rather elaborate fountain which spewed jets high into the air, and it was currently circled by flags representing all those same European countries. Really, it was the only place a visiting Very Important Person was likely to be found in Jump City, and currently it was where a certain group of super powered teenagers (minus one) could also be found, awaiting an audience with a man who was, apparently, not Russian.

"I can't believe this guy has kept us waiting for an hour...the suns nearly up..." Cyborg said, looking out the window and capping his words off with a wide mouthed yawn.

"He must be busy," Robin stated without really moving.

"Busy? In the middle of the night?" Beast Boy half yelled. No one contested his point. It was late...impossibly late, all of them were staggered with the amount that had gone on that day. To think, this whole business with Cerise had begun not two hours ago. Robin had been buried in his own head since Raven had arrived and dumped the whole horrible truth, simply trying to digest what was going on. He'd already made up his mind on a few things, particularly about these politicians that had invaded the city. With Cerise showing up when she did, there were a few things that were quite plainly obvious, things which he intended to confirm as soon as this supposed Russian Delegate made himself known. As it happened, he made himself known just about then.

There was a ding from across the immense and polished lobby of the hotel, and an elevator door opened. Two men with black suits, crew cuts and ear pieces stepped out and made their way briskly over to where the Titans had been sitting for the better part of sixty minutes.

"Mr. Ivanovich will see you now." One said, in a heavy Russian accent. They all stood without a word, trying not to look as frustrated, tired and upset as they clearly were on the inside. They all made their way to the same elevator with the mirror like doors and boarded, bound for some place skyward.

The trip up was a long one, taking them to the uppermost levels of the hotel, Beast Boy thought briefly of the view from such heights. He knew that, after all, it was the reason the higher hotel rooms cost so much more. He didn't see the point, since it would only be a view of the city (for whatever reason, they'd built the hotel facing away from the open sea, and any chance of seeing one those breathtaking, nature loving panoramic views was essentially nil). A full minute or so later, the elevator slowed, dinged, and released them.

"This way," one of the big Russians said.

"Must have some great conversations over there in Russia..." Beast Boy said under his breath.

They were led to a pair of large polished wood doors, with a metallic plate on the front that read 'Executive Suite'. Before the big Russian guys even opened the doors, the group knew it was going to be a massive room. You didn't put doors like that on the closet, after all. The two Russian bears, who had yet to give either of their names, each opened one of the double doors and stepped inside.

"Wait here," one of them muttered.

"Can you feel the love?" Beast Boy asked rhetorically. Robin had barely taken his eyes off the floor the entire trip up, an had narrowed his many thoughts down to one, the pressing issue of the hour (at least to him);

Sun up in fifteen minutes, let's keep him talking for twenty.

They stood there at the threshold of the room for another few moments before the man of the hour, Gregori Ivanovich stepped out of the shadows of the room, and into the light. He was a dark man, that had to be the best way to describe him. Jet black hair which fell in thick locks around his shoulders, a gaunt, hollowed face, tall and kind of frail in appearance, and dressed in a suit that would look more at home on a funeral director.

"Welcome," he said, Russian accent in tow.

"Greetings!" Starfire said over enthusiastically, as was her way.

"I trust you know the reason I have summoned you to my chambers, yes?" He angled his head down and looked at the Titans through the tops of his eyes.

"You need protection, apparently," Robin said, raising his gaze from the floor and quickly scanning the two behemoth guard types that had escorted them from the lobby.

"Ahh, yes, Mikail and Peter are good, but I want someone with, how you say? Intimate knowledge of the city." That made sense, at least in some small way. In a different time, Robin would have suspected nothing, in a different time.

"You want us to start now, or just when you go out on errands?" Cyborg said. Most in attendance could hear the sleep in his voice. It was long past all their bedtimes, with the possible exception of Gregori Ivanovich, if Robin's suspicions played out true.

"I will require your presence at my side for all of tomorrow. The delegates are to tour the city's famous sites, and I would like very much if you would keep a close eye on the whole affair." Suddenly, Gregori looked very distracted about something.

"Tell me, where is the other one?" The Titans looked at each other, deciding how to answer that. Really, they had no idea what he was on about.

"The other what?" Beast Boy offered.

"The other Titan, I saw her on the news. She wore...purple cloak?"

"Raven?" Robin asked.

"Yes, that is right, where is this 'Raven'? I would very much like to meet her."

"She's back at the tower, taking care of some...thing." Robin was going to say someone, learning from the past mistakes he'd made in calling Cerise an it, but felt that might be giving too much away.

"We asked for all Titans!" Said one of the guards, suddenly snapping to life.

"Peter, please." Ivanovich raised a tapered hand to quiet the man. "We will have her soon enough." That sounded way too wrong to ignore.

"What do you mean, 'have'?" Robin said accusingly. Ivanovich looked shaken, but only for a moment.

"Oh, ah yes...English...what I mean is, we will see her soon. I apologize for any confusion." The Titans looked at each other in disbelief. They all knew that they were thinking the same thing, which was simply that they absolutely did not believe a single word the Russian had just said.

"Yeah..." Cyborg said, slowly, making a small step towards the door. The others followed, inching slowly towards freedom.

"I think we must go to the room of the bed..." Starfire said, adding a rather exaggerated yawn. Before they could get to the double doors, the two large Russians slammed them shut. Ivanovich was making a clucking sound with his tongue. Tisk tisk tisk.

"I was really hoping that this could wait until tomorrow. Oh well, my fault I suppose. Gentlemen." When Ivanovich spoke this time, it was not with a Russian accent, but a more mixed, European accent, the type you find in movies set in a country other than America, non-descript and all over the place. On his command (a wave into the darkness of his room) twenty more large men in black suits swarmed in and surrounded the Titans.

"Take them to the basement, and send a team to their little tower, the that is there is the one we want."

"What are you doing!" Beast Boy yelled as the guards advanced.

"But before you go," Ivanovich said, ignoring Beast Boy's question, "can you tell me where my daughter is?" As the guards closed in, he smiled, baring his own set of razor sharp teeth.