Disclaimer: I own no part of the Teen Titans or their associated canon nor, any other already copyrighted material.

(A/N): And now begins the story proper.


Chapter 2

Homeward Bound

Garfield tugged at the collar of his shirt. He was holding the basket in one hand and waiting for Raven to get her cloak on.

"Hey Raven?" She fastened her cloak and pulled up the hood, more to block the sun than hide her face. There would be no reason anyway. Garfield had seen more than the cloak could ever conceal. A small smile crossed her lips at that thought.

"Yeah?"

"Does it seem…warm to you?" She frowned in thought. Now that he mentioned it…

"Yeah actually…" She glanced up at the sun. "And that looks…wrong." She pulled out her titan's communicator and flipped it open, checking her position against the GPS satellites. "Gar…check your position would you?" Concern was evident in her voice. Surprised, he complied.

"Uh…sure." He flipped his open as well and checked the readings. What he saw caused his eyes to pop open. "This can't be…no way. According to this…we're in the…"

"Middle of the Caribbean." She finished for him. They stared at each other, shocked.

"Okay…okay…no biggie." Garfield paced back and forth nervously. "Okay…we're three thousand miles away from where we were last night. Now…who or what could have done this?" He held his head thinking, all the while taking deep panicked breaths.

"Uh…Gar?"

"Okay…who could move a small island? Slade? Dead. Sort of. Mad Mod? No…then it would just be an illusion. Blackfire? No…jail."

"Gar…"

"Terra could have done it…but not that fast. And…she's…indisposed. The Prince? No. nothing around here to knock us off... Maybe…"

"Garfield!" His head popped up, looking for source of the voice. His still panicked eyes settled on Raven.

"What?" Black energy encased her hand.

"I think…it might have been me." He stared at her hand as comprehension dawned slowly across his face.

"You…?" He blinked a couple times as his mouth tried to say more but only managed a second, "You?"

She also struggled to speak. "Uh…yeah." He could only blink considering the implications of that realization. He didn't know whether to be extremely happy/proud that he could elicit so much emotion from her, or insanely scared.

"Okay…so you moved…an entire mountain/island clear to the other side of the continent. Wow."

"Yeah…good thing we weren't in the city."

"Speaking of which…let's get back to the tower…then we can figure this out."

"Good idea…how fast can you fly?" Garfield blinked at the question.

"Long distance? Seventy five or so."

"Uh-huh. It would take two days to get back at that rate. Can you trasform into something small?"

"Like a mouse?" Her eye twitched sharply. "Or a little bunny?" Both eyebrows twitched sharply. Right…no bunnies around Raven. "Humming bird?"

"That'll work. You can ride in my cowl."

"Those are perhaps the second best word I've ever heard…no…third best."

"Oh? And what would the other two be?" With a smile he stepped forward and whispered in her ear. She felt fire explode on her cheeks as he pulled back and kissed her. After a moment she pushed him back and looked very serious. "None of that. We might end up on the moon." After a moment her face broke into a smile.

"It would be worth it." Just as she thought he was going for another kiss he shrank down to a hummingbird and flitted around in front of her. Pulling her cowl to the side the she let the small bird fly in and settle on her left shoulder, right against her neck. Carefully collecting a little fabric with it's tiny feet in found a perch and leaned against her neck. Shivering ever do slightly at the tingling touch of feathers on her skin she focused and rose into the air. Collecting the basket in black energy she rose further and turned west.

Rising above the mountain range she focused for a second before taking off toward Jump City. Picking up speed she tore through the air, headed home and wondered if there had been any other happenings due to last night.


Five hours later Raven touched down after a tiring flight across most of the continental united states. Above the city dark clouds had gathered threatening a storm and casting an eerie glow over the tower. Two seconds later she dropped into a black portal to her room. Dropping straight onto her bed she flopped down, exhausted. The small bird flitted out of her hood and transformed into Beast Boy, sitting on the edge of her bed. After a second of stretching he looked around and froze in terror. "Crap."

"What?"

"I'm in your room. Again."

"Relax…you behaved yourself. More or less." He relaxed a little as she smiled. "However…" Her hand pulsed with energy. Panicking again he felt the bed disappear out from under him. "You need a shower." He fell through the portal into his room and landed on a similar looking, but completely different pile of clothes.

"Saved by the clothes again. Maybe I shouldn't pick up." He rose to his feet and began picking his way through the room toward his bathroom.


An hour later the Raven was seated at the table in the main room sipping at a cup of tea. She couldn't seem to keep a small smile off her face, or the troubling doubt out of her mind. She had literally moved mountains for Beast Boy. Had anything else happened? A few moments later, Beast boy himself, again in his uniform, stepped through the doorway. Or more like stumbled through it. He looked oddly pale. A very strange look when combined with his already green skin.

"Beast Boy? You all right?" She half rose to move toward him but he waved her off.

"I…I think…no." He stumbled over and fell into a seat.

"You eat some bad meat?" The momentary flash of anger managed to return some color to his face.

"Very funny. No. I…I saw…"

"What? The Easter bunny? Santa Claus? Slade?"

"Worse." He rubbed his eyes as if trying to erase what his mind's eye was seeing. "I was coming down the hall way…and there they were…"

"Who? What? Come on…let's have it." Raising his head to look right into her eyes he spoke.

"It was…it was…Star's boot. Then…Robin's cape…and one of her gloves…then the other…and…Robin's…mask! The trail started at Rob's door and ended just a little ways from here…" Raven nearly spit out the sip of tea in her mouth as her eyes popped.

"You mean…they…together?" Beast Boy nodded slowly. "Whoa. Wasn't expecting that. Figured Robin would wait at least a week."

"You knew?"

"Let's just say I had a strong feeling."

"Apparently…so did they."

"Yeah…come on…have some tofu…take your mind off of it. You may not get another chance to cook without Cyborg complaining over your shoulder."

"Good point." Still shaky he rose and fixed a large breakfast, which her rapidly tore through as Raven sipped her tea. "So…since we didn't leave such…obvious clues…what do we tell them?" Raven had been mulling over the same question all morning.

"I vote for nothing."

"We can't tell them nothing."

"Sure we can."

"Rob's a detective, trained by the best. Nothing ain't gonna cut it if we want to do anything."

"And what sort of anything are you thinking about? We're not going to be making out for all the world to see."

"I know that Rae. I never expected that. I never expected to spend every minute with you like Star and Rob. But I would like to hold your hand occasionally and sit by you on the couch on movie night. And those are things we can't do if we try to feed Rob and Cy the 'nothing is going on' line." She smiled again, surprised at how acuratly he had read every aspect of the situation.

"Okay…so what would you recommend?"

"Something simple…and vague. Boyfriend/girlfriend…realized we have some of the same tastes after the party…seeing where it goes…"

"You really think the Boy Wonder's going to buy that?"

"You'd prefer 'Hey guys, Rae and I just found out we're crazy in love and now we're together forever. Oh and by the way, we had wild sex last night and accidentally ended up in Cancun.' That better?"

"Point. Just one problem."

"What's that?"

"I can't call you Beast Boy anymore when we're alone. It just seems…unbefitting." His eyebrows popped up a couple times as his cheeks colored.

"Then how about-"

"No."

"What?"

"I'm not calling you Beast Man. Or dude."

"Fine…how about Gar?"

"That I can do."

"Good. Now…I'm going to catch up on my TV watching. As long as I don't have to fight with Cy…" He turned and started for the couch. Vaulting up he landed seated on the couch. "Now I just have to find the Aggh!" He bounced to the side, grabbing for something on the seat. He had landed on the remote, turning the TV on. "Stupid remote." Settling down as Raven floated over and sat next to him he finally heard what the reporter on the special report was saying.

You could tell it was a special alert by the huge banner scrolling along the bottom of the screen. The reported seemed to be standing on the edge of a large crater in the middle of the desert. She had that same dim, 'reading something I'm too dumb to write' look in her eye as she held the microphone. "That's right Tom. Five of these craters, approximately a mile deep and two miles wide have appeared across the South Western United States and northern Mexico." The screen changed to a large map to show the phenomena spread across the region. "Scientists have no idea what caused these explosions. They do know it's no form of radioactive device or conventional weapon. We have received no further information at this time. I have however spoken with a number of locals who felt the explosions last night…" Raven muted the TV as they cut to a local man.

Beast Boy slowly turned to look at her. Her skin was even paler than usual, her panicked eyes kept tracing along the crater markers on the map. She shook her head as if trying to clear a fog so she could remember something. With a start he realized what she was doing. He traced the markers himself, almost sure he knew where they were. It was rough…but it was a line from Jump City…to the Caribbean. Biting his own lip he suddenly knew what she was trying to remember. He too trailed his memory. 'Hm…six. But there are only five craters…right. We were over the water…good thing to.' He waited several seconds until he could catch her eye.

"Oops?" She stared at him incredulously.

"Oops!" She nearly exploded. A chair behind her did. Quickly working to focus she managed not to blow anything up as she spoke again. "Oops doesn't cut it. What if those had been cities…or something?" He could see she was becoming spastic. Sliding closer he wrapped his arms around her, a move she only slightly resisted.

"It's okay Raven. They weren't. You didn't hurt anyone. Everything's okay. We…" He could feel the pain in both of them as he spoke the next words. "We just can't risk doing that again." He bit his lips, hard, holding back a tear.

"Just not do that? Do you have any idea how hard that's going to be? Even you as a bird that close was like a splinter in my mind, driving me mad! I know what could happen and I still want to do it! Can you say you're any different?" Beast Boy shook his head.

"No. But I'm a Titan. And so are you. And that means we have to think of other people first. Last night we got away with it. Now…we can still do other things…but until we find some way to…not do that," he gestured at the screen, "We'll just have to wait." Letting out a deep breath she seemed to relax a little and fell against him, head on his shoulder, eyes closed.

"Well, this is a change."

"What's that?"

"I'm the spastic one and you're the voice of reason."

"Maybe you're starting to rub off on me." He smiled at her.

"Maybe you're starting to grow up."

"Who? Me? Not a chance."

"So last night was a fluke? You sure seemed like a man then."

"Are you tempting me already? Last night…was a promise. Of what we'll have once we get your powers under control."

"Now that's what I call an incentive." Snuggling closer she rested against him, protected by his arm as he started flipping through channels, looking for one not covering the craters. Outside, through the massive windows that formed much of the tower, the storm that had been threatening all morning broke over the bay. The first peals of thunder awoke two other titans also currently snuggling.

A shadow crossed in front of the tower and Beast Boy could make out the shape of the T-Car skimming teh water back towards the garage. It was no surprise therefore when Cyborg appeared through the doors a few minutes later. By the time he did the couple was separated by a few inches and Raven was seemingly engrossed in a book.

Taking glass of water he plopped down on the couch on the far side of Raven, clearly tired.

"Morning Cy." Beast Boy continued clicking through channels, still trying to find something not crater related.

"Cyborg." Raven closed her book and turned her attention to her clearly worn out friend.

"B, Raven." He took a long sip, staring blankly at the screen.

"So…dude…long trip?" He nodded.

"Yep, 10 hours. Drove all night. Would have broken it up but I needed to get out of there."

"That bad?"

"Yeah. Aqualad and Speedy were still taking shots at each other and Mas and Menos weren't helping things. And, leader or not, Bee could do only so much to control them."

"Glad to have you back." The trio turned as Robin and Star entered the room hand in hand.

"Yes Friend Cyborg…I too am glad of your return."

"Thanks Guys."

As the couple entered and sat near Beast Boy, Cyborg seemed to see the change that had overcome them. "So…guess the party went pretty well for you two." Robin could only smile and Starfire nearly exploded with joy when she smiled. "'bout damn time."

"SO," said Robin, quickly changing the subject and motioning to Beast Boy and Raven, "where did you two disappear to last night?" Raven answered first, having prepared an answer and speaking before Beast Boy could screw it up.

"Movie, pizza, night patrol. Got back about three this morning."

"I see. That almost sounds like a date."

"And if it was?" Raven's monotone cut back at him with surprising speed.

"Not a problem. So…was it?"

"Not that it's any of your damn business, Rob," Beast Boy chimed in, "But yes it was."

"So are you…?"

"The term is couple Bird Brain. Ask Star if you need it explained." Robin's hands popped up defensively.

"Hey I don't have a problem. I'm just glad-" Whatever he was glad about was lost to the klaxons as the tower's alert system activated. Checking his arm console Cyborg deactivated the alert.

"Someone the computer doesn't recognize at the front door. We'd better get down there."

"Agreed. Titans, GO!" Cyborg, Star and Robin all dashed for the elevator as Raven stood and pulled Beast Boy close. In sync with the elevator they began descending through the tower, floor by floor, until they arrived at the corridor just outside the elevator shaft. The other three joined them and assembled in the short corridor leading to the door.

At a nod from Robin Cyborg remote opened the door, spilling light into the dark, stormy day. As it slid open a figure that had been kneeling against it, pounding on it, flopped forward. After a second she managed to push her thin frame up enough to raise her blond head of hair and look at the assembled titans with weapons drawn. Shock and recognition crossed each face, each body frozen in place until Beast Boy managed to take a step forward.

"Terra?"


(A/N): If you feel it is warranted feel free to review. I welcome any and all opinions.