Chapter 4

The Titans were all standing outside the Jump City Police Station. Night was falling and a warm wind floated past. Robin had the bags of stolen jewels in his hands. He had insisted that they turn them in.

"You should probably be the ones to go get him." said the dark Robin.

"Why? He knows you."

"Yeah that's kind of the problem. We don't exactly get along, him being a cop and all." he said. "Besides, this guy's as yellow as Beastboy is green. He takes one look at us and he'll run for the hills." The original Robin sighed, but started his way up the steps to the door, with his team behind him.

Inside, he approached the front desk.

"Titans!" cried the officer at the desk. "What brings you here?" Robin dunked the bags in front of the man and said,

"We found these near the jeweller's that was robbed. Thought we should return them." said Robin, missing out the part about his alter ego stealing them.

"Oh. Well thanks a lot Robin, the man who owns the store's sure gonna be pleased."

"We were also hoping to find a policeman, who's, er, new in town. His name's Jonathan Warp, is he here?" he asked.

"Sure, he came in here." said the man, nodding helpfully. "He wasn't making much sense, and he wasn't in our computers, so we were keeping him in one of the interrogation rooms until a shrink got here."

"Do you mind if we talk to him?" Robin knew what being a Titan could get you in Jump City, but it never hurt to ask.

"Sure, I don't see any harm in it. You are the Titans after all." said the officer, winking at them. Robin smiled as best he could, and followed the man to the room Warp was being kept in.

The interrogation room was one of many, all on the same corridor. The could see Warp through the double-sided mirror, which was next to a cold, steel door. He was clutching a blanket around him, with a mug of what Robin presumed was coffee in his hand. Robin found it hard to look past the resemblance this man had to the Warp he knew.

"There he is. You just knock on the door when you're done." said the officer, unlocking the door and holding it open for the crime-fighters.

Warp looked up when they came in and put his coffee down. He straightened his back, taking the defensive approach. The door closed behind them, and Robin took the seat opposite Warp.

"You know who we are, don't you?" he asked. Warp nodded nervously, glancing at the other Titans behind Robin.

"You're this dimension's Teen Titans." he said.

"That's right. We're here because we want to send the other Titans home, and we think you might know how to do that." Robin kept his voice low and steady, this guy was obviously scared of them. It made him wonder what his counterpart had done to him.

"Wh- What makes you think that?" he said, trying to laugh, and failing.

"It was our Warp that opened the portal in the first place."

"That doesn't necessarily mean that –"

Robin cut him off, "Do you know how, or not?" he said, allowing a little edge to come into his voice. Warp stilled, and looked at him for a moment.

"Even if I did know how the portal worked, why would I want to send those terrors back? Jump City is better off without them."

"But they don't belong here." said Robin.

"Besides, don't you want to go home too?" asked Raven.

Warp looked at her, "Home? Home to what? A crummy appartement, a tv dinner and broken pipes? Thanks, but no thanks." he said.

"Surely there must be someone who will miss you?" said Starfire.

"Well, there is my dog, I suppose." At hearing this, Beastboy morphed into a dog a trotted lovingly up to Warp's leg. He barked at him, and tilted his head to one side questioningly. Warp laughed and laid his hand on the dog's head.

"You guys are way nicer than the other Titans." he said.

"So will you help us?" asked Robin.

Warp sighed heavily. "I guess I have to. Can't let those delinquents loose on this city aswell."

"Great" said Robin, and Cyborg banged on the door to be let out.

They took him back to the Tower, where he and Cyborg worked on duplicating Warp's device. The two different sets of Titans basically stayed within themselves until Cyborg and Warp were finished, wanting to avoid a repeat of that afternoon.

But once the machine was completed, they all gathered in the common room. Our Titans faced the others as Warp set up the device.

"Well, Robin, It's been interesting." said the dark Robin, extending his hand which Robin shook. The Starfires exchanged some Tamaranian words of goodbye and a cordial hug. Then a loud hum announced that the inter-dimensional portal was ready and waiting. They could see the common room of the parallel Tower through the distorting portal, and the alien Titans felt a collective pang of homesickness. The dark Robin looked at Warp,

"You go first." he said.

"Fine." Warp replied. He looked at the portal dubiously then slowly stuck a foot through. When it came through safely on the other side, he eased the rest of his body through. As soon as he was sure he was unharmed, he ran out of the room.

"Well, Team, let's go." said the other Robin. However, just as he approached the portal, the lights flickered before all the light-bulb simultaneously exploded. The portal gave off a faint glow, but it was still so dark the Titans couldn't see their own hands in front of their faces.

"Quick, you have to go through, without Warp I don't know if I can get it to work again!" cried Cyborg.

"Er, okay, hang on." they heard a Robin say.

"Raven, where are you?" called a Beastboy, and they heard two answering "here"-s.

"Starfire?" called one of the Robins, and he was rewarded with a light "here, Robin".

"Okay, take my hand."

Then they heard a slight change in the hum of the portal along with some movement, and then the portal fizzed dangerously and disappeared with a bang, followed by a distraught "NO!" from Starfire.

Robin quickly felt his way to the kitchen and got a torch. Shining it over to where the portal had been he saw Raven kneeling on the floor looking shocked, and an unmoving Starfire. The problem was, they were the wrong ones.

Robin felt sick as his fears were confirmed. He vaulted the kitchen counter and stood next to the shaking Starfire. He looked into the empty space that had held the portal. "Cyborg, start it up again." he shouted.

"I don't know how, man!"

"Find out!"

Robin turned back to the room before him, shaking his head. He looked down at the girl by his shoulder, who's hands were curled into fists as she trembled with emotion, her eyes shut and her lips pressed tightly together. He turned away from her and marched from the room.

Beastboy slowly stepped forward and laid a hand on Raven's shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll fix this." he said softly. Black coils of energy burst from her, exploding things all around them. Raven spun around, four red eyes glaring at him dangerously,

"Don't touch me!" she shrieked. Beastboy backed away and she sunk into the floor as a black silhouette.