A/N: once again apologies for the huge delay, but I'm afraid I must delay yeh all once more to thank the kind people who reviewed! Many thanks to: Elsa, Half-GothicChick, Sherman17, Evilevergreen, LaEditor, Sorceressofdemonotters, Cashmeritan, Purple Carnation and Taurus la Crazee. Now, to get this fanfic goin again! -
Garfield looked up at his daughter shrinking into the distance of the sky as she headed for the tower that he had once known so well.
"Not to ask an obvious question my friends, but… aren't we the titans?" Starfire asked with a puzzled expression on her face.
"Not anymore we're not. The city has new titans now." Garfield sighed half wearily and half sarcastically as he turned to skulk inside.
"Dude! Aren't you gonna follow her?" Beast boy demanded turning on his older self who seemed to be heading in the opposite direction to Angel.
"Hardly, I'm obsolete. The titans are gone, replaced by some amateurs who dare take the same name and shame me even more by teaming up with or flirting with my daughter." Garfield wandered over to the kitchen counter and sighed as he looked up at the flickering kitchen light. The lines in his face showed up more now, he looked… old, he was at least 41 years old but in this light and in this mood he looked far older and… lonely. He opened a cupboard and started pouring himself some unknown liquor into a glass with a deep sigh. Raven wrinkled her nose in disgust and Beast Boy jumped over to the counter and smacked the glass out of his hand, it smashed against the wall with a loud and displeasing sound.
"What is WRONG with you! When did you give up on everything! When did you- or even I become this cynical and… lame!" Beast boy snarled.
"Around about when my life fell apart I'd say, when my friends abandoned me, when Angel's mother abandoned her with me to only show up once again in her life to curse her with the prophetic powers you've just seen. Around about when my daughter, the only person I care for constantly puts herself in danger that I can't help her with, about when my heart got broken TWICE by her mother, you have NO idea what my life has been like. The time you come from, being a Titan, playing video games, eating pizza, stopping bad guys, those were the best years of my life, and guess what? It's all downhill from here now, that's why I am the way I am." Garfield growled and took a big gulp from the bottle of spirit in his hand.
Beast boy stood still staring up at his future, feeling undeniable dread filling himself, this was what his life was to amount to? Being a bitter binge drinker with no friends? He felt a hand on his shoulder, it was Robin.
"I think we should go, we've… got to get back to our own time." Robin said softly and fearfully.
"I'm sure you'd be dying to Robin, you've got a rich successful future and a beautiful wife waiting for you. Go on, leave, it's all any of you were good at!" Garfield snarled.
The Titans turned and left the house and walked along down the road towards the city, silence resting heavily on all of their shoulders.
"If this is the future…" Starfire began slowly after a long silence. "Then, surely if we have seen it then we are already changing it, if we know what is coming then… surely there is some hope?" She asked softly.
"Unless we're just following some foretold dance into a dim and dark future and nothing we can do will stop it, you know like fate, that kinda thing." Cyborg murmured glumly.
"That's not true, the very existence of Angel proves that the future can be changed, we can't let this happen!" Beast boy shouted angrily as he stopped still in the road. His head sank slightly then he looked up pleadingly at the others. "Don't let me become that."
"Well, it's settled then. We head to the tower." Robin nodded and started walking again.
"What good will that do? It's not our tower anymore, there are new Titans now remember?" Raven pointed out.
"I know I'd never let anyone take over our tower and throw out all the things we took from villains over the years, it'd be too dangerous." Robin said firmly.
"Oookay, but what good does that do us?" Cyborg asked raising an eyebrow.
"Well we must have gotten to the past again to be older now in the future, therefore we defeated the thief who sent us here which means we have the device that sent us here in the tower." Robin said quickly before gasping for air.
"This time travel stuff hurts my brain." Beast boy murmured.
The tower had been modified considerably since their own time, the technology inside was more advanced as was to be expected, but the place was bigger too, and more warmly furnished than in their days, there were pictures on the walls of the new Titans.
Cyborg picked one up and looked at it, the dark haired Nimbus stood on the far left with a dark skinned girl with a reddish glow around her next to him. On the far right a short grinning male stood, only just into his teens with various mechanical-looking things held in his hands, next to him stood Angel, her green wings proudly open and contrasting with her pale skin making her look like an eerie heavenly figure. But in the centre stood a Tamaranian looking girl in her late teens, clearly the oldest out of all of them, she had the fire of leadership in her eyes and a well toned body, she appeared powerful and intimidating but the smile on her face and her body language showed warmth and friendship, it was an odd mix but she instantly stood out as the leader of the new Titans.
"Like the new line up then?" A female voice said from behind him. He turned to see the same Tamaranian girl in the photo walking towards him; she was even more impressive in person.
"My name is Ori and I'm the leader of the new Titans, Angel said you'd be coming here, it's a pleasure to meet you all at such an exciting time in your lives. You're all legends and heroes in our time, it really is an honour." She said warmly as she shook Cyborg's hand, and proceeded onto the other Titans in turn.
The other Titans introduced themselves, the dark skinned girl's name was Chloe and she had power over fire, hence the perpetual red glow around her. The youngest boy's name was Rom and he was a technopath, someone with control over anything electrical or mechanical, which, in this day and age, was a powerful ability. Nimbus was a manipulator of air, the youngest child of a god of the sky who had bred with a mortal in fact.
"As much as we'd all love to have you here for longer, I'm sure Rom would love to see how you tick as well Cyborg, but we're damaging the time stream as we speak so I'll take you to your machine." Ori smiled leading the way.
Robin, Starfire, Raven, Cyborg all left through the machine, but Beast Boy paused and turned to Angel.
"Is it possible for us to change the future? To make things… better?" Beast Boy asked hopefully.
"Dad, you already have changed the future, now you need to get back to your own time before this one changes with you in it." Angel said softly, her eyes going purple as she herded Beast Boy into his own time.
Back in their own time the Titans apprehended the thief who had started this whole escapade off in the beginning, and things went back to how they once were, laughing, joking, being a Titans, playing video games, eating pizzas, and of course, stopping bad guys. The Titans grew older, Starfire and Robin grew closer together, married, and eventually had a child, whom they named Ori. When Bruce Wane died Robin had to leave the Titans to take care of Wane Enterprises and carry on fighting crime in Gotham, Starfire and Ori went with him of course.
Without their leader the remaining three Titans were unable to hold it together properly, after a short love affair between Raven and Beast Boy which all ended in arguments and fallings out the Titans declared themselves over for the time being and boarded up the Tower until new heroes would come along to take their place as the new Titans.
Cyborg started up his own mechanics industry and got very famous in the formula one racing circuit and made lots of money, with also some crime fighting on the side, but he gave most of his money to charity as a way to continue helping the masses.
Robin became a very successful businessman just as Bruce Wane had been, his companies cured many diseases through medical research, including Cancer. But, Robin could never give up crime fighting and, at night, he took on another persona with Starfire by his side, and eventually Ori too.
Beast Boy however was lost by himself, he tried solo crime fighting for a while, but it didn't work out, his only talent being with animals he bought himself a house in the countryside with stables and horses and ran a low-key veterinary surgery. A little after nine months since the Titans split up for good Raven arrived at Beast Boy's door with a baby in her arms. She explained that it was Angel and that she couldn't be around her for reasons that he could never know, but he needed to take care of her.
And so, Beast Boy raised Angel, ever protective of her, but he did his best to be a good parent and not repeat his previous mistakes, he never drank and kept up good contact with all the Titans except Raven who had effectively disappeared. She only returned once, and that was on Angel's thirteenth birthday.
Angel grinned happily, she had her father by her side and her godmother Starfire cooking in the kitchen (much to everyone but Angel's horror, Angel happened to adore Star's food), Cyborg, her godfather "testing" out her new video game for her, just to make sure it worked of course! And her other godfather Robin giving her a present of a communicator watch like the one Ori owned, just in case she ever needed help. But Angel missed one thing more than anything else, her mother, she longed to meet her and wanted just one touch, one hug, just one sign of affection from the woman who gave life to her. She turned to her father and asked him the question she asked him every year on her birthday, and it hurt Beast Boy every year when Raven didn't show.
"Dad, is she coming today?" Angel asked hopefully, she had never developed her prophetic powers only the ability to fly inherited from her father.
"We'll see Angel, we'll see." He replied quietly expecting full well that Raven wouldn't show and never would.
The door swung open at that moment and Raven entered with a large box in her hands with an uncomfortable looking ribbon on the top. She looked around the room with the other ex-Titans looking back at her in surprise.
Angel jumped up excited, she knew it had to be her… didn't it?
"Mom?" She asked quietly and hopefully.
Raven nodded.
Angel rushed towards her but stopped when the box poked her in the chest. Raven pushed it towards her and Angel took it gingerly, it was heavy.
"For… all the birthdays and Christmas' I've missed." Raven said shakily.
"Thankyou…" Angel nodded thankfully, but that wasn't what she wanted from Raven.
Angel turned carefully to put the heavy parcel on the table, as Angel's back was turned Raven started to leave. Beast boy vaulted over the sofa and blocked the doorway.
"Oh no, you've been gone too long, you can't just show up like this and leave again, you'll break her heart!" Beast boy ordered Raven. "If… if you have to leave, don't do it now. It's her birthday, don't ruin it for her…" Beast boy said softer, the loving and desperate look in his eyes stopped Raven for a second. She felt a pair of arms wrap around her stomach. She looked down to see Angel hugging her.
"Thankyou." She smiled with tears glistening in her eyes as she looked up at her mother.
"I…" Raven stammered as she lifted her own hands up instinctively to try and get her off, but as her bare skin brushed Angel's cheek what she most feared happened. Angel gasped and her eyes turned black, she fell to the floor with a scream as she clutched at her head, trying to make her first vision stop.
"This is why I shouldn't have come here!" Raven shouted at Beast Boy with tears brimming in her eyes as she ran out and disappeared.
Angel broke from her first vision in tears, as Beast boy looked at her, he knew that his daughter was forever changed now. Cursed and gifted at the same time…
A/N: This is all I'm going to write for this one Fanfic, however I might consider writing more on Angel and the new Titans if there's enough demand for it, so if you'd like to read it, let me know.