A.N. Alright I'm not mad I'm not mad. Just because I posted 5+ chapters and didn't get a single review I won't say a word… grumbleUngratefulLittlegrumble… Anyway I originally wrote this as a prolouge but the story just won't come so I'll send it out here as a oneshot. Give me some feedback on it this time! Even if it's just an anonymous review that says "Piece of crap" Give me something that says you're out there. I know you are!
Disclaimer: Don't own the Titan's if I did I would sooo know their characters and personalities better.
The lighting crackled around the tower dancing over the white crested waves that heaved farther out in the ocean. On a small island stood the gigantic T that had become synonymous with justice in Jump City. Once home to the Teen Titans the group had changed their name when the first of their members had turned 20 two years earlier. Now they were known merely as the Titans but other then a name very little had changed about the inhabitants of the tower, which the public was aware of in any case. The five Heroes did have some secrets though that they didn't dare allow becoming public knowledge. In the large common room a tall and slender young man stood staring out over the turmoil of the ocean thinking how fitting it was that only the tower on it's island stood between the city with it's occupants and the tempest approaching. Much like the inhabitants did on and daily basis and had done so for over seven years now. He dropped his head against the cool glass of the window his black hair hung below his chin and swayed forward. He had just begun to grow it out and periodically it still annoyed him with its length and tempted him to cut it short once more but the innate stubborn streak in him refused to give in to it. He wore all black now instead of the red, green and yellow that had once been his choice of costume. The bundle of blankets that he had clutched to his chest shifted as though sensing that his thoughts had wandered away from it. A small smile teased his lips and he stood up straighter and used one un gloved hand to tickle the soft pink chin. The bond between father and daughter ran deep and true as did the love from the heroes great heart. He looked out into the rain, pulled back in time by the gentle tug of a memory.
It had been a sunny day when it had happened. One of his passing girlfriends, the ranks of which seemed to move in and out of his life with a stunning impossible speed, contacted him. She needed to see him desperately and it had to be now. She was at the corner café by the airport. He didn't have any excuse not to be there, and she assured him that he didn't want to discover the consequences of not showing up. He'd gone, his memories of Sophia were some of his fondest so there wasn't any way for him to avoid going to her. He had loved all the girls that he'd dated in one way or another, they all knew that they'd never be the one love of his life. Just one look into his eyes could tell any woman that. They'd all known that they'd always have to share his heart with another and the ones who couldn't handle the sharing had left. Sophia hadn't, she just gave him a sad smile and kissed him good-bye. Said she'd always love him but that he couldn't give her all the love she needed. He known it to, had hated it at the time but had loved her enough to allow her the freedom that she'd asked for.
He had walked into the airport and frozen in shock when he'd seen her. Her hair which he remember as being a thick luscious auburn had turn dull and thin. More mousy brown then beautiful, and her once curvy healthy figure had shrunk down to nearly nothing, as though the meat and flesh had simply melted off her bones. She'd given him a sad smile as he'd sat down and ruefully apologized for her appearance. She'd been diagnosed with a cancer, it was terminal and the doctors had given her a mere few weeks to live. She was going home to Australia and was scheduled to leave on a flight in half an hour but she had something to give to him before she left. Then she instructed him to close his eyes and had placed a blanket wrapped bundle in his arms. When he'd opened his eyes he stared into a matching pair of brown ones. The infant looked up at him curiously and blinked twice as it struggled to focus onto him. Then Sophie had explained.
She'd found out two weeks after she had left him that she was pregnant. In a stupid fit of young pride she determined to have the baby alone and raise it herself. Two weeks after the birth she'd been diagnosed. She gave the child a small smile. She knew what it was like to be raised without a parent, without knowing who you were and she wanted better for her daughter. She'd named him the father on the birth certificate and all the information that he need was on it's way to the tower. She then pressed a soft kiss to his neck. She was dieing, probably wouldn't live till the end of the month. All she wanted so she could pass on in peace was his promise to take care of their daughter. He hadn't been able to deny her. He had barely been able to think. Suddenly the speaker blared the flight call and Sophie smiled and gently took her daughter back and gave the infant a soft kiss and a cuddle before replacing it in his arms. Then she left after telling him his daughters name.
"Circe Robyn…" he trailed off reluctant to voice her last name but content with whispering it within his mind. He'd been raising her for over six months. All of them filled with chaos in the tower. Going from teenager to father had not been an easy change for him but at 20 he felt that he'd managed to do it fairly well. He looked out to the sea again, it was all in vain though. He closed his eyes tight against the pain in his heart at what he was about to do within the hour…
In another wing of the tower another Titan was doing much the same thing. Sitting up in her bed Raven held the newborn bundle to her breast. The love and well of emotion within her that had been to long denied had finally found an outlet. While her own daughters beginnings had been painful and at the time shameful and humiliating, holding her in her arms now made it seem like a distant unimportant past.
Captured and raped Raven had crawled back to the tower as nothing more then a shattered shell of the heroine that had left. It had been a long and painful journey but the support and help of the others had helped her back into herself. That and the knowledge that Beast Boy had shifted into the Beast upon hearing the news and hunted down the one who'd done it. It wasn't a secret that the two of them were proud to keep but deep down she felt glad for it knowing that a friend had cared that much. So much that he had broken his promise to protect all the people of Jump City to kill the one who'd raped her. Neither of them had ever mentioned it to Robin though they both suspected that he knew. After all, if Robin felt it suspicious he'd have to report it and both Raven and Beast Boy felt that the mans death was justified. Raven held her daughter tighter at the memories of the fear and worry that followed the discovery that she was with child. So soon later Robin suddenly appeared with his own daughter that the entire tower had been flipped upside down. Though the inhabitants of Jump City never suspected a thing that was the way the Titans wanted it to be. In a way it made the event about to happen tonight easier on one level but at the same time it broke her heart even to consider it. But then, so did the consequences of what might happen if they didn't. She struggled against the emotion but couldn't hold it in and holding her daughter close to her began to sob in a way only a mother could understand. About to lose something so infinitely precious and yet so newly gained…
Robin looked up as one of the other Titans entered the common room. An old leather trench coat was on his back in place of his usual uniform. In fact if it hadn't been for his defining feature he would have been a stranger. He wore a old pair of faded jeans and a beige woollen sweater peaked out from under the trench coat. A pair of brown work boots with black souls and toe completed the change and he looked incredibly uncomfortable. He looked up and met his leader gaze and then looked away quickly. He wasn't happy with the decision that had been reached but he wasn't going to argue now. It was to late for it anyway and they were happier with this option then any of the others that they'd been able to think of. At 17 Beast Boy was the youngest Titan and in the last few years he had matured differently then anyone would have suspected.
Once the jester and prankster unable to be serious he had grown up taking a different path. He was still a prankster and enjoyed a good joke and a laugh more then the others but there was a different dimension to him now. He still kept up the idiot comic relief act but over the years the team had realised that is was simply an act. He didn't like anyone else to worry so had dedicated his time to keeping the others happy. He was selfless and trustworthy. Every now and then when he believed that he was alone he would sit down and stare out to sea or off into some middle distance all trace of humour and laughter gone from his form. He never said what it was that darkened his thoughts whenever he was asked but everyone knew that it wasn't happy thoughts.
"Robin I still don't think that-" he began when Robin walked up to him. But the Titans leader cut him off.
"Beast it's the only way." he said it gently and set the blanket wrapped bundle in the younger mans arms. The green teen looked at the bundle of blankets then up at his leader his emerald eyes pleading with him. Robin was resigned for what was to come but behind the steely self control and the white eye holes of his mask his hands longed to take back the charge he had just handed over. Beast Boy looked back down then he swallowed and looked up at Robin, his face grave.
"Why me Robin, why are you giving her to me?" the storm reached the tower and rain began to pound on the glass windows. The droplets cast running shadows that the lightning highlighted onto their faces.
"Because I trust you. I know you'll take care of her and you won't be suspected. When this new villain arrives like we know he will I don't want her anywhere in the line of fire." The both looked at the bundle as Circe stirred at her fathers voice. Neither knew how long they stood there when they looked up at the sound of footsteps. Cyborg walked in and paused in the doorway then he walked up to Beast Boy and Robin.
"Here's your ring BB. It charges automatically when you take it off so it should last as long as you need it to," the big black man said. At 22 he was the oldest Titan and was a surrogate big brother to all the Titans and a technological whiz. If he could think of it he could build it but right now he was wishing that he could have thought of something that might have stopped the events that had made what was about to happen necessary. He placed the small unadorned and simple ring in the shape shifters hand. It was similar to the one that he had used years back when he'd infiltrated the HIVE academy as Victor Stone, except that he'd been forced to tinker with it and had upgraded it making it smaller and less noticeable and the hologram that it projected more sensitive to the facial expressions and body language of the wearer. Beast Boy pocketed it and bit his bottom lip. The reluctance in his expression tearing at the big mans caring heart.
They all looked up as Starfire appeared and wrapped her arms around Beast boy. Tears flowing freely down her cheeks, and her hug strangely gentle, proof that she was aware of the small body between her and Beast Boy. She leaned down and brushed her lips over the little girls face in a final gift. Of all the Titans Starfire was the one who had adapted to the little ones living with them easiest. Star was almost the embodiment of motherhood and had taken to Robin's daughter as well as Ravens as though they were her own. It had been something that Robin had worried about most. After all he'd lost a large part of his heart to her the first day that he'd met her and they both knew it and yet they accepted that it could never be between them. He had still been unsure about how she'd react to the living proof of his unfaithfulness. Though he shouldn't have because Star never made a comment about it, merely accepting the child in her own boundless way. The tall red-haired alien took a step back and blinked rapidly trying to rid her eyes of the tears flowing from them. Slowly the soft pad of footsteps floated down the hallway. Everyone looked up as Raven appeared, having walked the distance from her room, trying to delay the coming event as long a possible. She held a bundle in her own arms as well, thick soft blankets bound the child within and a soft navy blue silk shawl was warped around the outside gold and silver stars adorning it and sewn in black silk thread so delicate as to be nearly invisible, were arcane symbols for protection, luck, blessings and a history that was uniquely hers.
Tears shimmered in her violet eyes as Raven entered the common room and looked up from her daughter. Beast Boy bit his lip and bowed his head for a moment then looked up at the sorceress. Robin shifted uncomfortably but the bond that ran from him to Raven allowed her to feel his own misery at this decision. It did only a little to ease the pain she felt. Softly she walked over to them. She was the shortest of the group now. Cyborg stood at an impressive six foot four and Robin at six one. Star was close to six feet as well but she appeared to have aged little otherwise. Next was Beast Boy and finally the sorceress. Everyone except Robin and Beast Boy were in their traditional costume and Raven let out a shaky breath and looked Beast Boy in the eyes. Raven brushed a kiss over her child's brow and whispered softly and the black threads of the blanket flared red then faded once more as she activated the enchantments with her own powers. Then she passed the bundle to Beast Boy. He took it reluctantly shifting both infants so that he could carry them safely.
"Take good care of her Beast Boy. Don't let anything happen to her." Beast Boy swallowed and nodded as a bolt of lightning tore through the sky.
"I won't Raven. I'll take good care of Oracle for you." Everyone glanced at Raven in surprise. She hadn't told them her daughters name yet but she'd told Beast Boy. Strangely as always she had seemed to find the perfect thing to say. Robin nodded and looked at Beast Boy.
"The money's in the account Beast Boy." He looked up as a small plane came in for a landing on the roof. "and Bruce is here with your ride. Take care." Beast Boy nodded then looked up at Raven who took a deep breath and with a few muttered words encased them both in a black sphere as she prepared to teleport them. "Take care Beast Boy. When it's safe, you can bring them back." Beast Boy nodded and then he was gone.
"Good bye, you little grass stain." Cyborg said softly, the playful insult bitter sweet on his lips as he realised that the tower felt emptier already.
"Farewell friend." Starfire spoke softly her voice shaking with the tears that she held back. Raven didn't say a word but it had seemed that she and Beast Boy had said everything that needed to be said between them and if nothing else, the single tear that trickled down the side of her face and the sudden snap of the computers behind them as her powers slipped said it all.
Together the four of them watched as the small plane disappeared into the storm weary skies none of them knew it's destination but their hearts all followed it long after it disappeared. All of them had lost something, as best friend, ad teammate, and a part of the only family that many of them had ever considered. For a long time the Titans remained standing till Robin picked up his communicator and pushed a button. Softly the yellow belt that sat abandoned on the top bunk bed in Beast Boy's room flashed once then went dead. Now they were four. The circle broken.
A.N- Alright that's it that's all. Review. Please. Please.
Note: If anyone cares or wants to know, Robin - 21
Raven - 21
Starfire - 20
That's it. Bye.