Chap. 4

"Honey, I'm Home"

"You wanna pass me, don't ya?" Cyborg said gleefully, as his car raced against Nelson's on the video screen. "You can't pass me, no one can pass… HEY!" "Maybe you should spend more time playing the game instead." Bart suggested, as Nelson's car suddenly raced across the finish line. "Ha Ha!" Nelson yelled out, as he jumped up and down in victory. "Errrrr, rematch!" Cy yelled, as he restarted the game.

"Cyborg truly wishes to achieve victory, does he not?" Starfire asked Milhouse, as the two of them watched from the kitchen. "He'd better do it soon, before his circuitry explodes." He commented, as Cy hunched over the screen, grasping the controller almost hard enough to break it in half. Looking up at the clock, Milhouse said, "When the heck are Brett and the others getting back? He's supposed to show me how to laminate my baseball cards." "Yes, and Raven and I were to try to contact the living dead again." Starfire added. "Yeah I,.." Milhouse began, then turned and stared at the young alien with a look of perplexing worry.

Suddenly, the doors opened and a voice rang out, "We're back!" As the three heroes walked in, Milhouse turned and said, "What took you guys? You've been gone almost three hours." "Well I'm sorry, we kinda ran into trouble." Martin snapped. "What kind of trouble?" "Trouble named Cinderblock." Raven answered. "Oh." Milhouse answered, realizing he had absolutely no case. "We also had another interesting thing happen." Brett said. Just then, another figure walked into the room. "Nice place you've got here." Sara said, as she walked into plain view. "Who's this?" Cyborg asked. Placing his arm around her shoulders, Brett said, "Guys, meet the missus."

After the understandable confusion that results from such a statement, Brett called everybody in the Tower into the main room, so he could explain how he and Sara had come to be. He explained that he had met Sara as a human when he had first begun to live on Earth. He had been walking home from work one night when he had seen her being mugged. Brett had managed to pull the mugger off, but Sara had finished him off with a direct kick to the 'nads. Brett had been impressed, and also extremely smitten with her. Somehow, he'd managed to get a date with her for Friday night. From that, they had built a relationship, but Brett had always been fearful of revealing his secret to her. Finally, after considerable support from his fellow Knights, Brett had finally been able to do it. Obviously it had been a considerable shock, but to her credit, Sara had been able to look past it and remember the person she'd fallen in love with. Soon after, they'd gotten married.

But then the fates decided to be cruel. Not soon after the wedding, a breed of demons began to surface. They were called chaos-demons, whose only wish was to return the world to its pre-creation state. They had targeted Brett and the Light Knight, because as the representatives of the primal creation forces, the two of them were their biggest threat. Since Brett couldn't die however, the demons decided to break him. They'd kidnapped Sara and once the Knights had come to rescue her, had mortally wounded her. She'd died in Brett's arms. The bat faltered at this point, but after a moment, continued. After that, he had thrown down his sword and renounced his Knighthood. It took six months of being on the road alone, and the threat of the demons to bring him back into the fold.

Yet afterwards, he had been moody and unhappy with his life. Then one day, the first Light Knight, who had become a more powerful being, the Gatekeeper of the Tower, had decided it was time to name a successor. The Knights had traveled into the heart of Latin America to try to find an animal body for the new Knight. But all but two were captured by a last Chaos-demon, who wanted them dead. Luckily, those two managed to create the new Knight from a fox prior. However, that Knight had been disoriented, having a muddled recollection of life as a human. AT first, it hadn't seemed to mean anything, because every Knight had been human at one point, though they did not remember it. They had assumed that their had been some sort of problem with the transference. But after they had raided the demon's fortress, they had realized that the Knight was in fact Sara, who had only died to be re-born as the Light Knight.

"Wow." Robin said, as Brett finished his story. "Man, I can't believe you didn't tell us this before." Ralph added. "I would have, but we agreed that when we split up, we wouldn't talk about each other. We figured that we might accidentally let out something important. Besides, talking about Sara when she's not here makes me depressed." "Damn right." Sara said jokingly, poking Brett in the side. "So what brings you to Jump City anyway?" Raven asked. "Well I was really just traveling around California, and I'd heard that this was a cool town. Besides, I'd heard about the Titans and BRATS and wanted to see if this Nightstalker was the same one I knew." "Hey wait a minute," Brett said. "You did know I had a new team!" "Yeah, but it was fun to screw with you." She answered. Brett just shook his head.

"Well, does this mean you'll be staying a couple days?" Beast Boy asked. "I could give you a great tour of the city." "You know, that actually sounds nice. I swear I think I'm getting to be like Brett." Sara said. "I actually miss being on a team." "Hmm… well if you want to, you join us with us." Bart offered. "We've already got one Knight." Sara laughed and said, "I'll think about it. But if you've got a spare room, that's be great right now." "I think I can get you one." Brett said, a gleam in his eyes. "Well then, I guess I'll stay if you don't mind." Sara answered. "Of course not!" Starfire answered happily. "This is wonderful! I must make Glork to celebrate!"

The young girl flew off towards the kitchen, just as Sara asked, "What's Glork?" Leaning over, Brett whispered in her ear. Sara's face contorted with disgust and she yelled out, "Starfire!" "Hmm?" Star said, turning around. "Uh, Glork sounds great, but I don't suppose that you'd let on of the boys cook tonight? After all, I don't want to be a burden, but I certainly think that these superheroes can make some food on their own don't you?"

"I believe you have a point." Star agreed, as she put her cooking tools down. There was a not too audible sigh of relief as Cyborg stepped into the kitchen. "All right y'all." He said. "Time to celebrate the best way I know how…. WAFFLES!"

Cyborg indeed knew how to celebrate with waffles. He created a huge buffet with waffles of every kind. The group ate happily, finally finishing at about eight-thirty. "See that's a celebration meal." Bart said, as he lay out on the couch. "Man, I don't think I can move for another hour." Brett said. At this, Sara leaned over and said, "I know where you get an even better kind of waffle, you know." At that, Brett leapt to his feet, pulled his wife up, and said, "We're going to my room to share waffle. Please leave us alone for an hour." Most of the others just nodded, having some understanding of what the bat meant. Beast Boy however, was not among those few. "Hey man, why go to your room? If this waffle is so good you're hiding it, I want some too." "NOO! You will not have this waffle! No one else will have this waffle! This is a waffle only Sara has knowledge of, and I have waited a long time for it!" "Jeez ok, don't bite my head off." Beast Boy shrugged as he walked off. But then Starfire entered the conversation. "Actually, I have a waffle recipe I was not able to make. If you wait a minute, I will make it and I shall share my waffle with you and Sara."

Brett began to make the speech again, but then he stopped and thoughtfully rubbed his chin, as if he was considering it. Sara of course, hit him in the gut, and while he reeled, she said, "Trust me Star, this is something only Brett and I should do." "Oh, all right then." Star said, as she stepped back. The Knights nodded, and with that left the room. "I wonder what that was about." Beast Boy wondered. "Yes, that seemed a bit much for a simple waffle." Starfire agreed. At that, Bart and Raven looked at each other, and walking up to both of their friends, whispered in their ears. Both Starfire's and Beast Boy's eyes widened, and they yelled out, "AWW DAMN!"

Much later, after Brett and Sara had shared waffle, they lay in bed together, which Brett didn't actually sleep in, but had saved for just this occasion; he asked, "So what do you think?" "Yes, you're still the Big Daddy." Sara answered. "Damn right. But I was asking about the others." "They seem ok. You've made a good group here. But Beast Boy… he's not all there is he?" "No more then Starfire, but they're both good kids. What about Raven? What do you think about her?"

At that, Sara seemed to diminish a bit. "She seems cool, but Brett…. The powers, the attitude, the smell…. Is she that Raven?" Brett paused for a moment, then nodded. Sara sighed then, as she moved under the covers. "Are sure it's a good idea to have her around then?" "Sara, she's a good kid. We don't need to worry about that for a while." "Oh yeah? Then how come they talk about the Return in all the circles? Brett I know he sent a messenger, and she's the right age for it. You should be concerned." "I am. But I can't worry about it all the time. Besides, she has more control over this then you think." "And how many times have we heard that before? You need to do something about this." "Look Sara, let's not condemn her already. I think we both know that appearances aren't always what they seem. Give her a chance."

As the two Knights talked, neither of them suspected the cloaked figure standing outside the door. Raven couldn't really hear what was being said, but she didn't need to. She could sense the emotion that was being put forth, and nothing made her feel good. Finally, she walked away from the door, but as she did, the lights exploded over her head.