Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.

Coyote – Chapter 9

A/N: This chapter leans heavily on the Titans' history, so if you see something that you are unsure about, please read the Author's Notes at the end of the chapter. If you are not very familiar with the 80s Titans, I suggest reading those notes before reading this chapter. I have tried to explain the backstory. If something is missing, let me know.

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Bart jumped at the crash of collapsing furniture, not believing what he was hearing. The couch in the living area just wasn't far enough away for this fight to be a quiet one. Every word of the argument was crystal clear in sound, if not in meaning. He turned up the television so he couldn't hear the rest of it.

Wally? he wondered to himself. What is this about Raven and my cousin?

What did Beast Boy say? "That was a long time ago. She was desperate to get him on the team and didn't know any better."

I know she brought the other team together to fight her dad. But what's this about Wally? Flash never mentioned her before.

He scratched his chin and thought for a moment more. Maybe that's why she's so quiet when someone talks about the Justice League. Well, certain really fast members of the JLA don't believe in me, either. Go figure.

But why was whatever happened bad enough to still be causing trouble? Trouble enough to make Frick and Frack there fight. What did she do?

He turned off the television and took the alternate route to his room upstairs. Seated at his computer, he began his delve into the tower's internal network.

Let's see. I know she recruited these guys for the old New York team. Maybe there's something about what went on with them in our files? How do I search for this? Team origins? Trigon? The Big Apple? The New York tower was built not long after they formed . . .

He began typing: Titans Tower New York construction

Let's see where that gets me . . .

Then maybe I'll call Wally ...

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Gar was almost speechless. Almost.

"What?"

With a deep sigh, Cyborg glanced down at the shattered table and spread his hands in front of him. "Maybe not the way you think you love her, Gar, but I do love her, too. I don't want to see her hurt herself again and again like this."

Gar sputtered. "I won't hurt her! What do you think I'm doing, just looking to get under her cloak?"

"No. I know you. You'd never hurt her on purpose. And Raven? When she's in control, she wouldn't harm a soul. Sweetest person I ever met. But you and I both know we can't count on that control. She's not stable, yet."

"She's better now, Vic. She's learning so much and –and -- and why am I explaining this to you? We don't need your permission!"

"You're telling me because we're friends. And because I'm her guardian. I'm responsible for her."

"You're responsible for her."

"Yes. At least until she gets on her feet. As far as San Francisco is concerned, she's only sixteen, and someone has got to be legally responsible for her. Her life has stopped and started so many times, B.B. She's not ready for the world, and it's not ready for her. Someone's got to help her."

"And you're the only man for the job, is that it?"

"I cared enough to help her with this when nobody else even thought of it. I owe her, man. And she deserves the help. And she trusts me – whenever she did ask for help in the past, she came to me." He sat back down in the chair, wincing as it creaked beneath his weight. "Did you know she was the first girl that didn't run away screaming when she met me? It didn't hit me until later that she was the first."

The chromed Titan rested his chin on his fist as he continued. "I-I know I didn't trust her at all in the beginning, but that was before I got to know her. And I finally realized I am who I am because of her. She chose me for her team, Gar. Me! I was never a superhero before like the rest of you guys. I was just a college jock that couldn't play any more because I was too strong. But she picked me anyway. I was standin' there thinking I was some kind of tin-plated Frankenstein's monster, but she saw somethin' else. Somebody worth somethin'. Joining the team gave me a whole new life. And I never thanked her for that. She was the one who got me talkin' to my dad again, while I still had a chance to before he died. And when the Technis had me – man, she held my soul inside her own to save me. She held my soul. It almost destroyed her, but she did it, anyway. She'd do anything to help me, no matter how much it hurts her. Or to help you. Or even someone who hated her or didn't know her. And she needs our help now."

Beast Boy's jaws clenched. "She's always needed our help."

"Yeah, Gar, I know. I know that. And maybe all of us old-school Titans feel guilty about not giving it before. I know I do. I know you do. But, damn it, Gar, I'm not going to confuse guilt with attraction. It's too easy to do. Way too easy. She's my family, like she's my kid sister. And you're my best friend. Understand – I don't want you two hurting each other. We've got a good family here, especially the three of us. We're the ones who live here. I don't want to lose that."

"We're still family. If anything, we're closer—"

"For how long? How long can it last up against everything she has to live with? She's not ready for a relationship. Not now. Her personality needs to stabilize first. What if history repeats itself if she dives in before she's ready? What if you guys break up and she leaves? Or you leave? Gar, you know what happens in the future if this team doesn't stay together."

Gar burned with the memory helping her recover from her fight with Superboy and how right it had felt.

"Oh, don't even go there! Who decides when she's ready? You? I don't think so. And -- and think about this -- what if lack of love caused that history in the first place? What if a relationship would actually help her? You ever think of that?"

Cyborg looked down at his hands. Chrome-hued fists opened, closed, then opened again. "It's not safe. Whether she's subconsciously making this happen or you're making it happen out of some sense of obligation, it's not real. And even if it is real, it's just not safe."

"Safe? And since when was love safe?"

Garfield bent down to pick up the seashell from the floor. Palming it with great care, he turned on his heel and stormed from the room. Cyborg was left alone with the mound of splintered wood and metal scattered across the kitchen.

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A/N: OK, there's a lot of Titans' history in this one.

Raven assembled the 80s version of the Titans to fight her father, Trigon. She hand-picked the people on the team, including both Cyborg and Beast Boy. I think I've already described how Wally got picked in a previous chapter (which Bart is now curious about).

The New York Tower was built by Silas Stone, Cyborg's father. It was one of Silas's experiments that killed Vic's mother and destroyed most of Cyborg's body. His father saved his life by grafting what was left of him with cybernetic parts. Vic was angry at his father for a long time for not letting him die. Vic thought he was a freak. Then Raven approached him about being on the team even though he was not a superhero before (like the rest of the members). The accident that created Cyborg also created a cancer-like disease in his father. Vic didn't know about it until Raven convinced him to speak to his father, who had built the tower for his son's team. He rebuilt his relationship with his father and got to spend a couple of months with him before his dad died.

The Technis incident is detailed in the series/trade paperback "JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative". To make a very long story short, Cyborg had been taken over by an extraterrestrial race of cybernetic beings called the Technis. They brought him to our moon to try to convert it into a new Technis homeworld. Everyone who had ever been a Titan was called together to stop the Technis and save Victor. I think Vic's original body had been destroyed at this point, but I'm not sure. Anyway, to save his soul, Raven held his soul in her soul-self until they could prepare a new "body" for him. It was pretty painful for them both, but it did save him. You can find more details on can name two distinct instances where she went to Cyborg for help. One was in the "Runaways" story (80s series, #26). Raven found a young runaway, Lizzie Angelo, who was pregnant and turning tricks to support herself. Raven took her to Vic's apartment to get her something to eat. Vic then had the idea of taking her to a runaway shelter that Vic had run to himself when he was younger. The other instance was in the Baxter series #39 when she had just finished her talk with Starfire about her confusing relationship with Dick Grayson. She didn't want to be alone, and she went to go visit Vic. He was the one she thought of first.

When Cyborg reminds Gar what happens if the team splits up, he is referring to events in the Titans of Tomorrow storyline (TT (GJ version) #16 – #19, captured in the "Teen Titans Volume IV: The Future Is Now" trade). Basically, if the team breaks up, very very bad things happen to the entire country. That storyline hinted at a possible future for the team that they definitely want to avoid.