I don't own Teen Titans

R&R


Six weeks.

That's how long it had been since she had disappeared. Six very long weeks.

Johnathan leaned back in his desk chair re-reading the note violet had given him the night Airen left. He had it memorized he had read it so many times, but he still re-read it. Scanning it for some tiny detail, some sort of hint as to where she had gone that he had previously missed. As he did, he twirled a vial of Airen's blood, the second one that he'd made and kept for himself, in his other hand.

He had the option of sending the vial to the lab, getting it analyzed. Maybe it would lead him to her. He had even checked with a buddy of his in the lab. There was an open slot, ready and waiting whenever he was ready to turn the vial in.

Johnathan turned his attention from the note to the vial. Airen had made it clear that she didn't want him running a DNA analysis on her blood. After their fight before she disappeared the least, he could do was respect her wishes.

He sighed. It had all gone so wrong. He hadn't wanted to avoid her or fight with her. He certainly hadn't wanted to storm her apartment, demand answers, and then attack her asserting his dominance. What he's wanted was to resolve their issues calmly and respectfully, get some reasonable explanations from her then woo and charm her. Take her out to dinner. Show her the stars again. Then, at the end of the night, he would walk her to her apartment door and gently, with her consent, ever so sweetly kiss her. But he'd been so angry over so many things….and his Beast had been so restless and angry lately, fighting him was exhausting. When Johnathan had found out about Airen and River something had just snapped. He couldn't control or contain it anymore.

Making up his mind with a sigh, Johnathan placed the note in his desk drawer and stood. He stretched and placed the vial in the mini-fridge he and Tony shared, hidden so that Tony wouldn't find it. Even though he had spent every spare moment looking for Airen since she left, he still had plenty of resources left. Analyzing the blood would be the last resort, to be used only when all other resources had been exhausted.

Johnathan gathered his stuff and began to make his way back to his apartment. Tonight, he would work on exhausting yet another resource.

Tonight, he would call Azarath.


"BEAST BOY!"

Gar winced at the sound of Raven's furious shout coming from the bedroom. Raven never called their son William by his hero's name, Beast Boy, and Gar himself hadn't gone by that name in years. In fact, Raven was the only one who still used that name for him. And she only called him that when she was angry with him, like super pissed angry.

Will and Willow's heads popped up from where they were working on homework at the kitchen table, interest, and concern on their faces.

With a sigh, Gar stopped reading the lab report he had been going over. He turned to look down the hall just as Raven stormed from their bedroom. Purple hair flowing freely down her shoulders, purple eyes ablaze and glowing with dark energy, and dressed in a purple t-shirt of his and a pair of gray shorts she was truly a vision to behold.

She was the most beautiful and amazing woman Gar had ever met and there were days, even after four kids and all these years he couldn't believe that she had ended up with him. Even as she tore down the hall, four red eyes glowing and fists clenched with dark energy he couldn't help but smile in knowing that she had picked him.

"Garfield Mark Logan!"

His ears dropped and the small smile quickly left his face. Full names were never good.

"What. In. AZAR'S Name were you THINKING!"

When Raven reached him, he quickly realized the problem. Her gray skin was glistening with water as her hair dripped on the carpet and her clothes clung to her frame. She was wet. Soaked to be exact.

Dread and horror-filled his gut as Gar realized what it was, he had forgotten.

Eyes widening, he began to plead for his life.

"Now Rae…."

"Don't "now Rae" me." She growled.

"It was a simple test run. Really. You weren't supposed to even know that it was there."

"And yet, somehow here I stand, soaking wet!"

Will and Willow sat at the table watching their parents' conversation like a ping pong match.

"I meant to take it down! Honest! I'm really sorry Rae!"

"Sorry doesn't fix me being wet Gar!"

Good. She was down to Gar. Maybe he could throw in a joke.

"No, but a towel would."

Raven snarled.

Or…. maybe not.

In the kitchen, someone snickered.

Without even turning in the direction of their two youngest children Raven hollered, "William Richard go to your room!"

Gar could hear the pout in his son's voice.

"Aww…."

"Now! Willow Elizabeth you too!"

Gar could hear shuffling as the two teens made their way to their rooms. Even they weren't brave enough to argue with Raven when she got in this mood.

When the kids were in their rooms Raven turned her attention back to Gar. He gulped.

"Rae really, I'm sorry! I was just practicing for the next time I saw Cy!"

This did not deter Raven in the slightest.

"Rae, please? I'm really sorry!"

Just then the computer on the desk in front of them chimed.

'Phew, saved by the video call.' Gar thought in relief.

Without hesitating he spun around and answered. John's tired face appeared on the screen before them. Almost instantly Raven's mood changed from enraged to pleasantly surprised.

"Hi, honey." She said giving John a small smile.

John gave a slight smile back. "Hi, Mom. Hi, Da-why are you wet?"

Gar winced as Raven grumbled something under her breath.

"Because your father has this idea that he's the next great Charlie Chaplin or something, that's why."

"Um…. ok…...?" John said confused.

"It was a small prank that I was practicing for your Uncle Cy. Unfortunately, your mother got caught in the crossfire. Which she was about to kill me for when you called." To Raven, he added, "Talk about a mood swing by the way. You pregnant or something?"

He meant it as a joke, but Raven blinked several times at him as though something just dawned on her. Something akin to dread made his heart skip a beat.

"Rae…...?" He asked cautiously. She blinked at him as though seeing him for the first time.

"What?"

"You're not pregnant…. are you?"

She frowned at him.

"Don't be stupid." She replied. Without missing a beat, she smacked him upside the head. "Now focus on your son, I'm sure he has an important reason for calling." Raven turned back to the computer screen.

"Uh, Rae….that wasn't a no…." Gar said nervously.

Without a sideways glance, Raven smacked him upside the head, again. Glaring at his wife and rubbing the back of his head, Gar turned to face the monitor.

"What was it you needed John?" Raven asked kindly in the sweet voice she only used for her children.

"Um…." John looked uncomfortable and shifted awkwardly in his chair.

"I was just calling for some information."

"About what?" Raven asked interested in whatever research project she could sink her teeth into. She hadn't had a really good one in a while.

"The Beast."

At those words, Raven straightened, and Gar sat up in his chair suddenly alert and serious.

"You already know everything that I do," Gar said.

"I know but, well," John scratched the back of his neck avoiding eye contact with either of them. "I was wondering, um, about….you two."

Gar and Raven both blinked in confusion, looked at each other, then back at their son.

"What about us?" They asked in unison.

"Well more specifically how did you handle the whole…. Beast thing?"

"Well, it was hard, but I fought him. I worked very hard to restrain and control him in all areas that concerned your mother. Sometimes it worked, others…. not so much." Gar glanced up at Raven quickly. She stood still and stoic, face blank and void of any emotion. He continued.

"The bottom line is that we had our ups and downs, and it was a struggle. Still are some days. But always, always, and I cannot stress this enough, treated your mother with respect. No matter what happened, what I did, or how it happened, I always made sure that your mother was safe and respected. Nothing happened without her knowledge and consent. She always had a choice. I made sure of that. No matter how angry I got, no matter how pent up the Beast was. No matter how much I wanted to otherwise, nothing happened unless your mother wanted it to. And I mean nothing. Hell, I didn't even talk to her about the situation until she said she was ready to hear it."

In his peripheral vision, he could see Raven nodding along in agreement.

"Why?" Gar asked as an afterthought.

John shifted nervously.

"Well….something kind of, happened between me and Airen…"

Gar and Raven both frowned.

"Define something."

"What happened?" They spoke at the same time.

John sighed heavily.

"We kissed. Like, kissed. We didn't get very far though. We were, ahem, interrupted."

"How did she feel about it?" Raven asked.

"I don't know. We didn't really get the chance to talk about it afterward. As I said, we were interrupted."

"But what did she say beforehand. You know when you talked about it before it happened?" Gar pressed. He'd been a young man with this struggle once. And if he knew anything about his son, which he did, he didn't like the look on John's face.

"Well…. that's the thing. We kind of didn't talk beforehand."

Gar felt Raven stiffen next to him. He knew how she felt. If there was ever anything, they drilled into their boys' heads it was you don't do anything with a girl until you talk about it with her first. Even then sometimes it still wasn't okay to do anything.

"What do you mean you didn't get to talk beforehand?" Raven asked with a deadly edge in her voice.

"We've talked about it before, just not recently." John rushed to explain. "But when it happened, we were arguing and just kind of, I don't know, it just happened without any real build-up."

"Son, there is always build-up, even if you don't realize it," Gar said gruffly.

Raven ignored Gar and pressed on.

"Well, what did she say when you talked about it previously?"

"Um…."

Gar crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, raising an eyebrow.

"Johnathan."

John hung his head in shame.

"She said nothing physical. She made that pretty clear."

The silence was deafening. Disappointment filled Gar's heart. The fact that his own son would push someone's daughter like that…. he couldn't believe it. He fought to stay calm for the sake of his son. Gar knew that John was probably already beating himself up over it. Besides, Raven was giving no indication of remaining calm.

"JOHNATHAN EDWARD LOGAN!" Raven roared four red eyes sparking. John winced. Raven spent the next several minutes lecturing and scolding and pretty much everything short of climbing through the computer screen to strangle him herself.

Meanwhile, Gar sat back and watched Raven go with a hand covering his mouth while he thought. When John looked thoroughly scolded Gar grasped Raven's hand.

"Alright, Rae. I think he gets the point."

"Does he?"

"Yes Mom, I do."

"And what are going to do to fix it?"

John hung his head.

"I'm working on finding her. When I do, I'll talk to her about it. Apologize, fix it."

Gar and Raven shared a look. They had seen Dick go through the same thing 16 years ago and that had not ended well. They didn't want their son to have to go through the same pain, but there were some things parents can't prevent.

"And until then?" Raven asked solemnly.

"I'll do whatever I need to keep the Beast contained and controlled."

He said it so seriously that Gar almost believed him. Almost. Gar wanted to protest but knew that John wouldn't listen.

"Whatever you think you need to do." Was Gar's only response. Raven looked like she wanted to say something else but thought better of it.

"That brings me to another thing I wanted to ask you. Mom, would you mind using Azarath's resources to find Airen?"

"Of course, I will, but I don't think-"

"Please Mom, please just look for her. I can't-" John's voice broke. "I can't think of any other possibilities right now. I just need to believe that she's out there somewhere and we can find her."

Raven nodded in understanding. "Of course."

They said their goodbyes and signed off. After a few moments of silence, Raven turned toward Gar.

"I don't like this. He's so…. wrapped up in her. I didn't realize they were that close. In fact, I find it hard to believe that they really were that close. They had only known each other for less than a year. Even Violet isn't this upset. I don't like this Garfield. What are we supposed to do?"

"Nothing." Gar shrugged but frowned. "That's the nature of the Beast Rae. It doesn't matter how long they knew each other; one look is all it takes, and the Beast is hooked. That's how it works with the claim. The Beast picks someone, in this case, Airen, out to be his mate. That automatically makes her his mate in his eyes. He has all of the primitive emotions toward her, protecting her, providing for her, etc. That only stops if she becomes someone else's mate. And since his emotions are tied to John's, they are the same person, after all, John feels it all too. As for the intensity, the Beast is a primal being. Anything he does or feels is going to be intense. His instincts are few, but they are intense mostly because they're the only ones he has."

"So, you're not worried?" Raven looked at him skeptically.

Gar shook his head.

"I wouldn't say that. I am worried. I'm worried that something else we don't know about is going on. I'm worried about Airen. What if she didn't leave of her own free will? What if something happened to her once she left? I'm also worried about the lengths that our son and the Beast inside him will go to in order to find her. I'm worried about what will happen if he finds her and it's not what he expected. Or worse, if he doesn't find her at all.

"Of course, I'm worried, Rae. But I would be more concerned had he marked her before she left. That would have made things worse."

"How so?"

"Claiming is picking someone out to be your mate. Marking is a physical brand you put on your mate once they've officially become your mate. In order for the Beast to mark someone, they have to either agree or be dominated. That happens through, well, actually mating."

"So basically, had he marked her they would have had sex."

"Yes."

"Either because she agreed or because he forced her?"

"Correct."

Raven frowned. "How do we know he didn't mark her?"

Gar leaned back in his chair.

"Well for one he would be a lot worse than he is now. He and the Beast would be going crazy, er, ten times as crazy as they are now. On top of that when a mate is marked, they are trackable in a sense. Trust me, if he had marked her then John would have found Airen by now. Besides, he said that all they did was kiss."

"Riiiight…because our children are always completely honest with us about their sex lives."

Gar scowled.

"For one, Will and Willow are way too young to have any kind of sex life. Period. For another thing, John's an adult. He doesn't have to tell us anything about his sex life. Not like it's a huge secret anyway."

Raven raised a brow. "And Violet?"

"She's never having sex. Ever. Neither is Willow. We can get grandkids from the boys." Gar growled.

Raven looked amused. "We were Will's age."

"We were young and stupid."

"Violet's much older than we were."

"She's better than us."

"Garfield…"

"Aw come on Rae! Can you not ruin the image I have of my sweet, innocent baby girl? Please?"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Fine."

She began to walk back to their room when something occurred to Gar.

"Hey, Rae….about that other thing…..are you pregnant?"

A pillow encased in black energy slammed into his face knocking him backward off of his chair into the floor.


Waves crashed against the sand in a peaceful serene scene. Johnathan stood ankle-deep in the surf and breathed in deep, closing his eyes and enjoying the smell.

He loved this dream. It was so realistic. He could feel the water and smell the fresh air and the sea. Usually, he couldn't do those types of things in his other dreams. But that wasn't the only thing that made this dream special. He had been having it for the past few nights, and now he couldn't wait to go to sleep. A week ago, sleep was simply a hindrance to finding Airen. Now it was a much-needed reprieve from the pain and desperation he had been feeling for the past six weeks.

"Fancy seeing you here."

His heart skipped a beat when he heard the voice. He turned to face the person standing next to him in the surf.

Her hair was several shades lighter, and her eyes were brighter, almost like they were glowing. Her skin was a deeper tan, and her muscles were leaner and more toned. When she spoke, he could hear the accent he had once heard slip through.

She wore a red bikini that hugged her every curve. Over it, she wore a white netted cardigan as a cover-up. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun and her cheeks and nose were red and dotted with freckles. All in all, she looked exactly how he would expect if she had spent the past 6 weeks on a beach somewhere.

"It's good to see you." He managed.

She smirked, amusement in her eyes.

"It's good to see you too. Although you know this isn't-"

"Real. I know." He cut her off, disappointment in his voice.

"Hey," She nudged him. "This may not be real, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy what time we have here."

He smiled and nodded.

"So where are we anyway?"

She turned and faced the horizon where there was a magnificent sunset.

"The Caribbean. I don't know which beach, just one somewhere in the Caribbean. I've always wanted to come here, see it for myself." She said wistfully.

"Maybe we can come here someday, for real."

She smiled at him, a small sad one. She bent over to pick up a rock and tossed it. It skipped on the waves a few times before plunking in the ocean.

"You shouldn't feel guilty."

She said it so matter of factly it took Johnathan a moment to realize she was talking to him.

"About what?"

"The kiss."

She glanced at him as she threw another rock. He blushed in embarrassment and looked down at his feet.

"You…know? About that?" He stuttered quietly.

"I'm in your dream. A figment of your imagination and mind. Of course, I know." She turned to face him.

"I shouldn't have kissed you like that. We should have talked about it first. I should have asked you or something. I'm so sorry."

She nodded.

"Yes, you should have asked, and we should have talked before anything happened. But we didn't and now I'm telling you not to feel guilty. It takes two to kiss the way we did. I wanted to kiss you as much as you wanted to kiss me."

"I doubt that," Johnathan muttered.

She smiled. "Okay, maybe not, but the point is I wanted the kiss. Believe me, if I wasn't okay with you kissing me then you wouldn't have kissed me."

Jonathan looked at her unsure. To which her response was to laugh. Her beautiful full-hearted joyous laugh. Eyes sparkling with happiness and mirth she stepped closer to him.

"Do you regret kissing me?" She whispered.

Johnathan balked. "Of course not!"

"Good. Neither do I." She glanced down at his mouth then back up at him. "In fact, I vote that we do it again. Soon."

Johnathan smiled mischievously. "Your wish is my command," he paused to look her over. Not in a hungry animal looking over fresh meat way, but in a drinking her in because he couldn't believe she was there way. He looked into her bright green and gold eyes and smiled.

"Airen."

With that, he swept her into his arms and captured her lips in his.


Ok, so this chapter is more of a filler than anything else, used to explain some in-depth points about the Beast(s) and connect a few dots, stuff like that. Which is why there's not a lot to it. I wanted to take the time to explain the claim and mark before we continued with the story. I also wanted to take the time to add a family perspective of the Logans. This is a Teen Titan fanfic, after all, it needs a little more of the actual teen titans.

For those of you who are wondering, Will is about 16 years old going on 17 at this point. I'm working on putting together a prequel of sorts for this story, to show how the characters got to this point in the first place, but until then for this story's sake, Raven was about 17 when she became pregnant with/had Violet, her and Gar's oldest.

Also, Will and Willow will become main characters later on, and in the next few chapters we will see Mar'i and Ryan more, but for right now I'm choosing to focus on Johnathan and Airen with a few supporting characters.

Lastly: Starfire. Where is she? In case it hasn't been made obvious, one of the main plotlines of this story is Starfire's fate. Where she is, who she had become, etc. is one of the things that the other original four titans are exploring, or working on exploring. I've done my best to try to drop hints here and there, which I feel makes the plot obvious (disappointing for me but oh well), but let's see if you can put them together. Read and review or pm me with your guesses about what happened to Starfire. The closest one to get it right will get, drum roll please...bragging rights! I know, not much of a prize, but I'm pretty tired and it was the best I could come up with. Good luck and have fun! I look forward to hearing from you!