Times Like These

by Cailus Sionnach

Written as the series and movie being roughly 4 years and a year after all of that; The Titans are older, but some problems stay the same. But a summer trip leaves everyone in a place to grow up and change. Or not. BB/Rae centric, bits of Rob/Star, M for adult themes and graphic violence and a ton of cursing. Arguably excessive amounts of cursing.

11. Chapter 11: Ways to Go

A Minor Interlude:

A/N: Indulge me, if you would.

A void.

A white, endless void.

Two silhouettes appear.

They loom.

"What is it?"

"A world."

"...Okay. But what's it doing?"

"...Trying to live?"

"It was discarded."

One of the silhouettes turns to leave. The other remains.

"But then why does it try to live?"

"Because it's what these things do, let it be. Work is to be done."

The other remains, leaning closer now.

"Maybe we can help it?"

The silhouette moving away stops.

"...Why?"

The other turns towards it's partner.

"Why not? We need not do much, just...give it a push back into reality."

The partner turns, appearing to look around wildly.

"That...exceeds our function. Or at least goes against what we do."

"Does it? Or do you just not feel like being bothered, again?"

The other has appeared to fold its arms. Its partner's figure is fidgeting.

"I do not object fully, I just...we need to be careful with these interventions. They cause ripples. Things are fragile now; so many worlds are jumbled, confused in their narrative-fates. Would it not just add to the confusion?"

"...Well, it also means no one else would be looking...if one world just...rolled back in."

They both look, the shrouded figures gaze down from their position in the void.

"No, I suppose not."

"Then we are agreed?"

"If to stop your incessant nagging of the subject, yes. Just...we cannot do this for every abandoned world we find, you know."

"I am aware. And I thank you."

They both lean down, getting closer until their shadowed forms overtake the whiteness of the void.

Galaxies appear in the shade; Nebula; Stars; Worlds. A blue world. Rippling back into existence.

When the multiverse asserts a change, it's never noticed by most of it's inhabitants. Those that do have quite different reactions. The scientists, of high enough understanding, seem to detect the subtle adjustments to reality. Ring bearers tend to feel a minor fluctuation in power as the emotional spectrum stabilizes. Magic users tend to get headaches as the wild energy surges and adjusts. Speedsters get hiccups as the speed force stretches to and fro to acclimate to the new universal normal. And some...some who are special in ways they do or do not know...just have dreams.

Chapter 11: Ways To Go by Grouplove

A set of emerald eyes snap open and Gar sat up abruptly in bed. Then, the various left over pains in his body reminded him that was a terrible idea. As he laid back down, he unconsciously felt the space next to him; it was empty but warm. Raven did always wake up before him. He heard her bathroom door slide open as she meandered into its frame, glass of water in one hand, at least three pill bottles floating near the other. She made eye contact and raised an eyebrow, slightly grimacing.

"The hell are you doing awake?" She set the bottles down and proceeded to get a pill out of each one.

"Really,really weird dream. Why, what time is it? Oh god, is it early?" Gar immediately stumbled to the window and peaked out the curtains. The sun was just barely scratching at the eastern horizon. "Oh no. Oh no-no-no, this is just wrong."

Raven just watched her recently-outed-as-her-boyfriend have an existential crisis, gulping pills as she did. "I know, must be a sign of the end times, you're awake at dawn."

"Nope. Nope. Fixing this." Gar tried to scramble back into the bed, sliding off at the last second and hitting the floor upon grabbing the blanket and not the bed proper. As he laid there, Raven simply sat back down on the bed, and grabbed the book on her nightstand.

"Just, keep it down? My head's killing me. Damn migraine woke me up." She glanced over to the other side of the bed, not quite seeing him past the edge of the mattress. A green hand came up, and in a series of mildly pained moves, Gar successfully, if a tad over dramatic, crawled back into bed, blanket twisted around him. She opened her book, while still glancing at him. "What kinda dream did you have?"

"It was..." Gar looked into the air before him. "There was like. I dunno. Two big shadows on a white background? Talking about..pushing reality? Or something about abandoned worlds? It's gettin' all jumbled." He closed his eyes and pinched his nose. "Annnd there it goes. Damn dream king and his cryptic bullshit."

Raven sat up straighter. "Dream king?"

Gar waved his hand from his relaxed position; "Yeah, the dream king, tall, pale, spiky black hair, stars insteada eyes, younger brother of death, cryptic bastard."

Raven closed and set the book back down carefully before turning almost fully to look at Gar. "How do you know that? Any of that? No one knows that, or at least barely anyone does."

He looked at her, shrugging sheepishly, "Met him and his sister when I was coma'd."

She stared as she processed the statement, her brain immediately latching on the most concerning to her. "You were dead?!"

He looked side to side for a moment. "I...I thought you knew, you healed me. She said it was like...30 seconds? Or something. I remember snippets of it all."

Raven tried to remember that night. She didn't like remembering that night, admittedly. "I...was a bit...out of it. So...if you were..." She very obviously didn't want to say the next word. "dead...I probably didn't notice. I was just...pumping you full of energy at the moment." She sat there in thought, before reaching a hand towards one of her book shelves. An older looking book was wreathed in black energy before floating into her hands. Quickly, she opened and skimmed the pages, before stopping on what she was looking for. Raven nearly shoved the book into Gar's face. "This? This is what you saw?"

The image was a black and white photo of an extremely crude drawing of the dream king as Gar had described him. "That's him. Weird drawing though, did a kid do it?" He raised an eyebrow as he looked over at Raven.

"Gar, that's a photo of a cave painting that's at least 20,000 years old." She stated flatly.

"Oh." He blinked, eyes slowly going back to the photo. "Well...he's uh. He's aged well, huh?"

Raven rolled her eyes as she brought the book back in front of her. "So, how did you see him, anyways?"

"Dunno. He was just...there with me during the coma-thing. Going through my dreams with me. I think his sister made him do it? It's...weird trying to remember it." He scratched his head awkwardly. "Like I'm only supposed to remember certain bits, ya know?"

Raven nodded. "Sounds about right." She sighed, closing the book and sending it back to it's shelf with a quick wave. "I'm still shocked that you...actually..." She trailed off.

"Well I didn't." Gar sat up, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Thanks to you."

She leaned into his hand gently, before fully leaning into his side, allowing his arm to wrap around her. They relaxed against the headboard, her leaning her head onto his shoulder, Gar resting his head on hers. They sat in comfortable silence, enjoying each others company.

Raven broke the silence, "So, since we're up early-"
"I don't accept any hour before 10 AM." Gar interjected.
"-Do you want to do anything special for breakfast today?" Raven finished flatly.
Gar sat up to fold his arms over his chest, looking off to the side, sulking. "...yes."

_
Nightwing, Kid Flash, Starfire and Wondergirl wandered into the common area to smells of false bacon and eggs and real waffles, along with the sight of Raven and Gar sitting at the table eating said foods.

Dick took off his mask to make sure it's lens' worked right.
Wally just slowly pulled his mask and cowl back, hiccuped and stared in concern.
Donna and Kory shared a look of worry and confusion.

Raven saw them first, and nodded at Gar to look over. As he did, he slowly stopped chewing his food.
"Whut?" Gar asked, mouth full.

"Why are you awake before noon?" Dick asked.

"Is this a joke of the practical nature?" Kory added.

"Isn't this a" Hiccup "legit sign of the" Hiccup "end times?" Wally looked at Donna.

She nodded. "On Themescyra we have a prophecy scroll that actually begins 'When one of green beasts awakens before the sun reaches it's daily height, doom approaches this world."

Wally looked at Donna wide-eyed. Hiccup. "Really?

"No." Donna raised an eyebrow.

Raven and Gar just stared at the group.

"Y'all look like shit." Gar finally said. They did, in fact, look like shit. Dick's brand new costume had brand new burn marks and cuts all over, Wally's looked similar, both had faces smeared with ash. Donna and Starfire looked less worse for wear, but hints of similar burns and scraps were on their uniforms too. All four looked exhausted.

"Thanks." Dick looked less than thrilled at Gar's assessment.

"I'm guessing the search went well, you guys were just stuck at a burning police station doing paperwork as they booked Slade, right?" Raven punctuated her sentence with another slice of fruit covered waffle.

There was a collective groan from the four as they began moving to different spots to rest in the area. Dick moving to the coffee machine to pour a cup. Star to grab bottles of comfort mustard and settled at the table. Donna also went for coffee, and followed Kory to the table. Wally plopped himself face first on the couch, a muffled hiccup coming from him every now and then.

Dick settled at the table next to Kory and sighed. "Y'know how it is, no matter what, the paperwork's gotta get done."

Gar swallowed the food in his mouth before speaking again. "So what actually happened?"

~Earlier That Day~

It was late in the day as Nightwing's bike skidded to a halt in the barely there trail in the desert. He cursed under his breath, looking at the barren area in front of him.

"What do you see?" Kid Flash leaned on the bike lightly, " 'Cause y'know what I see?" He stood up and waved his hand at the emptiness before them. "Fuck all is what I see."

"There was something here." Nightwing replied, before putting a hand to his ear comm. "Star, Wonder Girl, see anything up there?"

"There's a slight depression in the center, maybe what used to be a bunker or something?" Wonder Girl floated above them, looking at the same land.

"This appears to be another one of the busts, does it not?" Starfire was floating opposite from Wonder Girl.

"Appears that way." Nightwing sighed. "Rose gave us a few more sites to check, give me a minute to try and reduce the list again." He began tapping at an AR keyboard that appeared on his arm, a screen popping up on his mask's screen.

"Showing off the new toys much?" KF stretched.

"Hey, in my defense, I didn't know Batman had done this many upgrades since I was in Gotham last. Must've been keep Lucius running around in circles." The map popped up with the all the locations that Rose had remembered being bunkers and hide outs for her father out here. They had been going from the closest to Jump, then fanning out. Nightwing decided to switch it up, mapping the known escape route from the station to the last spotted location. He went between the spots they had been, x's over them, and looked at the closest ones to the highway. No. Slade wouldn't be that obvious. Nor would he have done the farthest, would lengthen deployment time. He'd go for something in between...far enough to be out of the way, and get a heads up of anyone coming near, but close enough for solid drone deployment. Annnnnnd...

"Got it!" Nightwing kicked up and revved the bike off in the direction his mask's navigator plotted.

Wonder Girl and Star followed from above immediately, Kid Flash had been trying to get at itch under his left ear piece.

"Got what?" He looked up, finding dust and the silhouettes of his team going into the distance. "Oh, come on!"

Kid Flash finally caught up to where Nightwing had stopped, resting on his legs for a moment, panting in the heat.

"Took you long enough." Nightwing grinned at him, tossing over a water canteen.

"Hardy har har." KF dryly replied, catching the canteen and taking a long swig. After lowering it, he looked over where they had stopped. "So, we have now found Point Fuck All number 15."

The spot looked similar to the others. Almost exactly the same. Almost. There was no depression in the ground. The area showed the barest signs of movement, and most importantly, attempts to cover up that movement. Nightwing got off the bike, and wandered Point Fuck All 15. The AR on the lens scanned the area, point out several tire tracks, foot prints and...hidden scorch marks? He walked carefully over to the marks, moving the dust around them, letting the connection to the Tower's computer scan it.

"Cy, anyway you could get a fuel analysis on this?" Nightwing laid his hand flat against the ground.

"I...should be able to?" Cyborg sounded unsure on the other end of the line.

"Fuel analysis on what?" KF hovered over Nightwing's spot.

"I mean, if the Bat computer can, you can, Vic. You're at least twice as powerful as it. Maybe." Nightwing grinned.

"Seriously what're we looking at?" KF leaned down squinting.

"Like the vote of confidence Rob." Cyborg was letting the scanner run it's processes in the background.

"Nightwing, now, remember?" He corrected.

"Is there something in the sand? All I'm seeing is sand." KF squinted harder his brow scrunching up under his mask.

"Old habits, man. Old habits." Cy chuckled. "Alright got something. Computer says the burn and chemical markers match middle to higher end jumper transports. The kind the military 'doesn't' use. Maybe a Hawkwind?"

"Hawkwind?" Nightwing was unfamiliar with the vehicle name.

"Oh, Hawkwind marks." KF sat up. "How many and how far apart?"

Nightwing looked up at him, finally acknowledging his presence. "Four." He stood up and pointed at where his sensors picked up the marks. "There, there, there and there. About 10 ft wide and over 30ft long."

"That's not a Hawkwind." Kid Flash tapped his foot in a blur, rubbing his chin in thought. "It's similar but too big. Hawkwinds carry small groups, maybe five or six, plus pilot. This could carry maybe twenty? Or one guy and a heluva lot of gear."

Nightwing nodded. "Did ya catch that, Cy?"

"Loud and clear, I'll check through...unofficial channels, see what I can dig up." Cyborg cracked his metallic knuckles.

"Just don't get caught." Nightwing replied.

"If you're gonna insult me, just call me an asshole. Jesus." Cy dropped off comms.

Nightwing grinned and went back to looking around. "There's gotta be some doors hidden around here. Flash, can you-?"

A blur whirled away, running around the area, then became Kid Flash again when it stopped by Nightwing.

"Three likely spots." KF pointed at a slightly raised area of sand. "Most likely is-" He blurred over to it. "Here!" He yelled over from several yards away.

As Nightwing walked over his scanner picked up what looked like old school cellar doors under the pile.
"Flash, can you-"

"Yeah, yeah." KF spun his arms, bringing up a burst of air, clearing the sand off, revealing large, and barred, metal doors.

"Thank you." Nightwing looked up at the girls, who had been floating, keeping watch. "Wonder Girl, Star, wanna lend a hand?"

"Certainly." Starfire leveled herself above the door, glaring at the bar on it, green beams bursting forth. While not fully melting, the bar softened, which Wonder Girl used to break it as she grabbed the non-heated parts of the doors. With great effort, the bar bent, then snapped under the heat and force, popping off in opposite directions.

Wonder Girl breathed out, turning and smiling. "See? Easy peezy."

A set of stairs led further down, the bottom of them obscured by darkness.

"That's not ominous." Kid Flash peered down with the group.

Nightwing remained silent as he started down the steps, the night vision automatically adjusting on his lens. The others followed him slowly, if a little less confidently. Starfire gathered energy into her hand, creating dim green light. The group was unsure how long they went down the steps, but they definitely went a ways before finally arriving at a sealed door with an electronic lock to the side.

Nightwing examined the pad next to the door. No prints; Slade is too cautious and robots...don't leave prints. He sighed.

"Hey, Wonder Girl, could you pull the casing off this-"

A large crunching noise echoed in the small area, Donna now holding the piece of metal that used to enclose the locks wiring.

"Thank you." Nightwing examined the wires. "Hrmm, Flash, any knowledge about locks?"

"Nah, not my thing. Could give it a once over from a electrician point of view, though." Kid Flash shrugged. The group stared at him. "What? I wanted to learn a useful trade, bite me."

"I thought that's what the mechanic's course was for?" Nightwing inquired while watching Kid Flash go over the wiring repeatedly.

"I mean, yeah, but I finished those. And most cars and stuff are going to have soooo much more electronics eventually anyways, figured I'd try and be ahead of the curve." KF stared at the wires for a moment, weighing his options, before rapidly pulling and rewiring several. A large clunking noise comes from the door as it slides open, allowing them to look into the barely lit gloom that was Slade's bunker.

"Y'know what I like about these lairs? They're always so homey." Kid Flash commented as they made their way through a claustrophobic entrance hall.

"Well, Slade always did have a distinct approach to interior design." Nightwing kept his eyes to the walls, ceiling and floor, trying to find any traps. Nothing. 'I don't like that.' As they approached the end of the hall, they found it forked in two directions. "Wonder Girl, Star, head left, Flash and I got right."

Everybody nodded. The deeper they were getting in, the more nervous they were getting collectively. It's been too quiet, even for an abandoned hideout. Initially, Kid Flash kept pace with Nightwing, but the deeper they went down the hall, the more antsy he was getting.

"I know it's a bad idea, but I'm gonna scope out ahead." Kid Flash turned and looked at Nightwing, expecting an argument. Instead, Nightwing just nodded.

"Just keep an eye out for...anything." Nightwing kept scanning the walls as Flash darted ahead. There should've been more doors or something. This was a lot of hallway for a bunker...

"Found something, Rob-gah, Nightwing." Wonder Girl grumbled over the radio.

"What do you got?"

"Looks to be a incinerator room...and it's got some bodies in here. Maybe a few days? It's hard to tell when they're burned." Wonder Girl scrunched her face looking in, Starfire hanging around the door uncomfortably.

"Anything identifying?"

"Well they're almost all the way burned, except in one spot; the face. None of the faces have a trace of the same level of burn." Wonder Girl was shining a flashlight from body to body, confirming her assessment.

Nightwing stopped walking down his hall. "That's...huh." He began to run the notes from the mission in his mind, before it clicked. "The masks."

"My guess too." Wonder Girl hunched down looking at one body. "They must've been more trouble than they were worth." Her light went up the torso before stopping. "That's weird."

"What?"

"This one's headless."

"Had trouble getting the mask back after the burn?" Nightwing suggested.

"Maybe."

Kid Flash cut in on the comms. "Hate to interrupt, but I just found the big room."

"How much further?" Nightwing picked up pace.

"Probably two dozen yards, not far." KF replied.

Nightwing finally caught up, and took in the area. Yes, this is definitely Slade's. Machinery lined the sides of the room, extending further back down the sides of the hall. Explains the lack of rooms on the way here. A raised platform over looked the enterance way, with a simple metal chair in the back.

"Well, at least he's consistent." Nightwing grumbled, approaching Kid Flash. "Looked around yet?"

"Nah, didn't want to set off the booby trap Slade left for you."

"How do you know there's a trap for me?"

"Doesn't he always leaves those for you, as a way of showing you he cares?" KF shrugged.

Nightwing couldn't argue that. "Well, no where to go but up, I bet his living area's behind this ego platform." Together, they leapt up and over the railing of the platform, and cautiously moved past the chair and central area.

Nightwing really should've seen it, but he had zeroed in on the light in the back of the area, a computer it looked like from here. But even pro's make mistakes and he immediately cursed himself when he heard a whining noise gathering above them. "Shit."

"Told you."

"Shut up."

Any want to go further was cut off as a life sized projection of Slade appeared in front of them.

"I'm sorry I'm not here to taunt you in person, Robin. Pressing matters and all that, I'm sure you understand." It waved it's hand casually. "But if you wait just a moment, you'll have my message after the beep."

"After...?" Kid Flash asked as the image flickered out.

A red dot began blinking on the far back wall, a small beep in tandem. Every other blink, the dot was joined by two on either side, the lights beginning to line the walls. The beeps progressively got louder with more and more lights flickering on.

"Wonder Girl, Star, head to the door, Slade rigged the place to blow!" Nightwing yelled into the comm, before turning to Kid Flash. "Let's move."

"Way ahead of ya. Might wanna take a breath though."

"Wh-?" Nightwing felt the rush of air around him as his arm was roughly grabbed, and he was pulled along by Kid Flash.

The first light gave a duller beep, and an explosion began rippling in the center room, each successive charge going off in order, others on the opposite side of the bunker began to detonate as well. The placement caused the bunker to rapidly begin to crumble. Donna and Star waited outside by the door, watching as air, fire and dust shot up out of the ground to the sides of the bunker. Flash and Nightwing launched out of the entrance way like a bullet as fire quickly followed. Nightwing dropped and allowed himself to roll to a stop, Kid Flash stopping as almost a dot some distance away. Star rushed over to Nightwing as he half stumbled his way back to standing, only a little singed, grabbing his right shoulder.
"We're okay, Star. Just a little singed, that's all." Nightwing grimaced into a grin.

"Your arm is out of socket."

Nightwing looked at his shoulder. It was indeed. "Didn't have time to brace when Flash grabbed my arm." He attempted to shrug but immediately regretted the gesture.

Starfire sighed and grabbed his shoulder and arm, looking at him for the okay. Nightwing breathed in and out deeply for a moment, then gave her a quick nod. A large popping noise was heard as Starfire shoved his arm back into socket, followed by a string of curse words that'd make Guy Gardner proud. He laid down on the dirt face forward, gathering his senses.

"Okay." Nightwing began after a few minutes of listening to the bunker crumble and burn behind them, continuing to lay face first in the desert. "Okay. So Slade was here at recently. Anything that'd tell us where he went was either connected to that computer, or in the bunker in general. He offed the goons, but kept the masks. Tech's probably been gone. He didn't even leave robots to ambush us-"

Nightwing felt small tremors in the ground, then groaned. Several Slade-bots crawled their way out of the ground, near surrounding the group. Some looked worse for wear, others just dusty from being in the ground. All were ready to attack.

"You just have to say these things out loud, don'tcha bud?" Kid Flash muttered.

Starfire's eyes began to glow green as she gathered energy to her hands.

Wonder Girl cracked her knuckles before settling into a defensive stance.

Kid Flash appeared not to move from a relaxed stance, but a trained eye would see the tension building in his form.

"Well. Let's get this over with." Nightwing stood, wincing as he tentatively rolled his shoulders and pulled out his new escrima sticks, electricity coming to life at the tips of them. "Titans-GO"

~~~~~~
"...After that, they started hassling us all the way out of the desert. The trap at the main bunker seemed to activate other bots from the other sites and they just converged on us for what felt like hours." Dick finished, head hitting the table lightly, Kory rubbing his back affectionately.

"How does he get-"Hiccup"-sooo many robots?" Wally groaned into the sofa.

"What do think all that machinery in his lairs are for?" Dick responded.

Hiccup"I just thought he thought it looked cool." Wally lifted his head for a moment, pensive look on his face,hiccuped then he let it go as his head hit the couch again.

"Have your days of healing been successful, Friends Raven and Garfield?" Kory decided to steer towards a less...aggravating subject.

Gar shrugged. "Still sore, but other than, I'm good. Feels like years since I've had a chance to go out and just run, though."

Raven nodded, casually floating her and Gar's empty dishes to the sink, silently showing off her powers being back to normal.

"That is wonderful, but I was more inquiring on your relationship." Kory smiled broadly. Raven and Gar's faces began tinging red as both Donna and Dick turned to look at Kory. Dick raised an eyebrow, Donna gave a small frown. "What?"

"...It's kinda...personal, Star." The words came from Raven very slowly, as she was resisting the impulse to simply sink into the floor. This was the part of her decision to rapidly abandon hiding she had been dreading. "Look, we can talk about it...later. But right now, you all need rest."

Starfire narrowed her eyes ever so slightly at Raven. It was an evasion, but she had been correct. It had been a hell of a day. "Very well. But we shall hold a time of girls tonight!" She stood, grabbing her remaining bottle and walking to her room. "Are you coming, Boyfriend-Richard?"

"Yup, just give me a minute. Table's cozy." Dick muttered out as he continued lean face first into said table. Star sighed, walked back to the table and with very little effort, threw Dick over her shoulder and began carrying him to bed. He made no effort to fight it, only giving a small "oof" when he hit her shoulder.

"I believe the bed will be more comfortable." Kory stated as they left the room.

Donna looked over at Raven, who she could tell seemed to be...recovering was the best word, from Starfire's blunt question. "You sure you're gonna be up to a full meeting tonight? Star and Jinx alone are bad, together..." She shuddered. "Let's just say I'm glad it's not my love life they'll be examining." She took a sip of coffee, noticing a small flicker in the table light.

"I'll...be okay. I'll just have to do extra meditations. And maybe set up a ward or two." Raven sighed, sipping her tea.

"You two do seem to be doing better, though. Just an outside look." Donna nodded between the two of them. "I won't pry. I'll leave that to the experts."

Gar raised an eyebrow. "Gee, thanks."

"You're welcome." Donna took another swig of coffee, finishing her mug, before grabbing Dick's untouched mug. "Since someone needed to pass out, I guess I'm on note duty again."

"Don't...don't you need to sleep, Donna?" Gar winced as he watched her down the coffee.

"I'll be fine." She smiled wide. "Amazon, remember?"

"Well, I can't wait to see how this backfires." Raven monotoned as she stood up to stretch, starting her way to the roof for her morning meditations.

Gar continued to sit, staring into a void only available to his eyes.

"You have no idea why to do at this time of day do you?" Donna eyed him over the rim of her coffee.

"Nope. What...what do people usually do at this ungodly time?"

"Uhm. Anything you do the rest of the day, I suppose."

"...Video games it is!" Gar jumped up, moving towards the couch, before stopping. Wally was passed out, letting out a soft snore, occasionally interrupted by a hiccup. "And room console, right." He did a small turn on his heels towards his room, leaving the common area to the sleeping Wally, and a soon to be overly wired Donna.

The day went on at a leisurely pace. No major crimes popping, everyone, well most everyone, sleeping in. Cyborg got up to start his morning routine and was thrown off by Donna and Wally. Donna was on her fourth cup of coffee, and looked it. Tablet in front of her, notes to the side that she was rapidly flipping between adding to, and cross examining. She paid Victor no mind. Wally was still unconscious, though at some point had rolled onto his back, leaving the snore a tad louder, still interrupted by a small hiccup.

"Well. Adapt, I guess." Vic muttered to himself, going to prep a small breakfast. "Mornin', Donna. Do you want anything to eat?"

"Can't eat. Thinking."

"Uh huh. How's that goin' for you?"

"Been better."

"Sure you don't want to take a break?"

"No, I almost got this, I know it."

Vic stared at her. "This. Shit like this is how I know you and Dick are damn near siblings."

"Meh." Donna waved a hand at him, motioning to leave her alone, which he did, for the most part.

"So, where's everybody else?"

"Dick and Kory are sleeping, I assume Jinx is too. Rose is doing Rose things, I've found it best not to pry. Gar's been playing games for the past hour in his room, probably and Raven's been meditating on the roof."

"Still? She's usually done by now." Vic double checked his HUD for the time.

"Wanted to do a long session today, Kory insisted on a time of girls, and wants relationship deets about Raven and Gar."

Vic sighed. Of course she did. It's Starfire, she's probably over the moon that two of her friends she suspected were dating are and wants to bask in it's glow. Or something. Star just lives for this stuff. 'Wait...dating. RIGHT!' Vic remembered. "BOOYAH! I won 200 bucks!"

Donna spun her finger in the air without any celebration, giving a flat "woo", while Wally near jumped a foot in the air and off the couch.

"I'm totally awake professor! Just closing my-" Wally took in his surroundings, then sighed in relief, the sigh leading into a hiccup. "Never mind." He stood and did a small stretch, taking in the room and the sunlight from the windows. "Oh. Well, best go check on Jinx." Wally dashed into the kitchen, grabbing Vic's toast right as it popped up. "Gonnamunchonthisthanksdude." And, with a hiccup, he was gone.

Without blinking, or any show of surprise, Vic simply grabbed two more pieces of bread for the toaster. "Welp, I guess I'll ruin Roy's day after breakfast."

"Wait, you made a bet with Roy?" Donna looked up from her spread of notes.

"Yeah, just in fun." Vic shrugged.

Donna's face fell slightly. "You really shouldn't encourage him; he's got an addictive personality, you know that."

"It's just one bet, Donna, it'll be cool."

"All it takes." Donna grumbled, looking back down at her notes.

Vic didn't linger on Donna's grumbling before settling in to eat his light breakfast, almost grabbing a cup of coffee then looking at the bag sitting next to machine. "...Donna, did you use the coffee with the skull and crossbones?"

"No. Dick made it, thought he was gonna be up."

"Oh."

"...Why?"

"No reason." Vic sat down to eat; that coffee is Dick's 'I need to get shit done' coffee. It's noted and branded on it's extraordinarily high caffeine content. Donna didn't know it, but she was about to be wired for at least 2 days. If it affects amazons in a similar fashion to everyone else that is.

Vic's guess was accurate. Donna, who had proceeded to have more coffee in the mean time, was now wired more than he was. While he was certain she didn't have super speed, she kept moving rapidly between the table and the nearby computer to print off more notes. She swore she was on to something. It took up the whole table, strings connecting various notes and newspaper clippings, held with pins. Vic was impressed. He didn't know they had string laying around.

Around 10-ish Gar had appeared, built a small tray with tea and a muffin and disappeared just as quickly without a word. Donna didn't notice, Vic thought it best to let him be, he was obviously on a mission for someone else.

By noon, Rose had wandered her way into the common room, dragging herself over to the fridge before stopping and looking at Donna's work. Donna was staring at the whole thing, biting at her thumbnail a bit as she was lost in manic, sleep deprived thought. Rose looked over at Vic, who was just watching TV. Vic shrugged. Rose nodded and continued to the kitchen.

"How's the hunt for Pepe Silvia going, Donna?" Rose asked while making a bowl of cereal.

"I'm not sure he's part of this-No, doesn't matter. Fine. It's going fine."

Rose turned to look at the amazon, raising an eyebrow as she took in a mouthful of sugar, oats and marshmallows.

"Doesn't look fine."

"It is. Tell 'er, Vic."

"She's had eight cups of Dick's Death Wish coffee and she hasn't moved from that spot in thirty minutes without blinking. It's fine."

Donna held out her hand towards Rose. "See?"

"Uh-huh." Rose munched on her cereal, completely convinced. "So do you think dear ol' dad's involved in these shenanigans?"

"In a mercenary fashion. I guess he decided he poured too much of his own money in the past, and is using someone elses. The easiest answer is the Brotherhood but it's all...too subtle for them. They would've made some big grand move by now, they can't resist the theatrics, or hold back Rouge for that long. Unless it's something bigger. Like..." Donna stopped mid ramble and stared at the table. Rose continued to look at her while eating, making a small spinning motion with her spoon.

"...Liiiiike?" Rose led.

"Like a secret society." Donna almost whispered. "I gotta call Diana!" She sped out of the room, almost knocking over a reawakened Dick as he came in.

"...What was that about?" Dick stared at the doors Donna had just run through, then looked around the room.

Rose shrugged. "Either Donna's brain finally snapped from lack of sleep and/or caffeine over dose, or she finally found what she was looking for in her notes for the past few months."

Dick wandered over to the notes, scanning them himself. "What'd she say?"

"Something about a secret society?" Vic responded, he looked back at Dick. "Mean anything to you?"

Dick folded his arms and looked down in thought. "I mean, there's dozens. Most are relatively harmless rich people doing things because they're bored. But in relation to all our usual mess? Not really..."

Raven's meditation was significantly longer than usual; she had to prepare for Kory's questions, and worse, her reactions to the answers. Add in the still realigning of her emotions after the past few months. And the continued adding of...preparations for being around Gar. While the overall imbalance was almost immediately rectified after Gar's coma-no, near death experience apparently, the fallout from spending so long out of alignment not so much. She had spent so long hammering down her emotions for him in public, and then almost love bombing him when alone, to just undo it presented almost as many problems. Knowledge, Happy, Courage and of course Love was on board with being open about their feelings for Gar to everyone. Timid, Sloth and Rude were not truly against it, per se, but far more resistant to the sudden change. Rage was of course against all of it. The others were prying too much; Gar didn't deserve their love, he had done just as much bad as anything they had; No one could just leave her the fuck alone. And with all of that, Rage was dragging the other hesitants with her. It was an even split amongst herself. She did her best to mitigate the worst of it, but without using the mirror it was tiring. And the mirror was a no go right now; If her emotions had the strength to project without the mirror...then they were probably far more dangerous inside her mind. No, this had to be done the old fashioned way. And it had to be done. The cat was out of the bag; no going back at this point.

The old fashioned way took almost 4 hours. She hadn't noticed that she had actually stopped floating at some point until she came out of the meditative state. Raven almost stood up to stretch before she noticed the tray next to her; The tea was still hot, and it's companion muffin looked wonderful. Along with then on the tray was a little folded note;

"Figured you could use this, you've been up here a while. -Gar"

Raven sighed as she put the note down on the tray, smiling slightly as she picked up the tea. It seemed to put that final nail in Rage's arguments in her mind. The only thing the mental aspect could briefly throw out was the muffin wasn't blueberry, but it was brushed aside. She looked over the bay, enjoying the light oceanic breeze as she sipped her tea. Raven was far from healed, or even fully stable if she was going to be honest with herself (which is something Gar had always correctly pointed out as a problem in one of their first conversations), but the past week had done wonders to put her on the right path. Or at least a better one than she had been on. And she didn't have to walk it alone, like she had been forcing herself to. With work, maybe she'd be able to help Gar in the same way...

Gar had no idea how he was awake now. His initial plan was to just play games until Raven came down from her morning meditations and then spend time with her. Probably playing games as she read in the background. But when it hit 9:30, which he only noticed when he had to pause the game for the fifth time in as many minutes, he realized she'd be taking longer than he thought. She had said something about that right? To prep for Star's grilling this evening? Maybe? Yes that was it. That's when he fetched her some tea and a snack, she always came out of long sessions a bit munchy. And then he had came back to his room and just...vegged. It felt like it'd been years since he had just sat in his own room, but it'd only been barely over a week since the tumble down the stairs. He still had trouble thinking of it as a 'near death experience', or similar. Hell, he didn't even like to think about the dying thing at all. But he supposed it helped them both put everything in perspective.

Gar sighed as he leaned back in his beanbag chair in front of his TV, staring at the ceiling. He had once heard that pain is the best teacher. He really hated the reality of that. All of his life, it was lesson after lesson. His parents. The scientists. His uncle. Mento's bullshit. Terra. His downs with Raven. It always gave him some sort of life shifting, important lesson. There's only so much you can do. Know when to use your powers correctly. Don't trust those who obviously lack your best interest. Stand up for yourself when pushed too hard. Trust and love are worth giving out, but when it backfires it can be near fatal. Adjusting to another person doesn't mean giving up who you are,or changing them in the process. This one was harder to place; Pay attention to goons and your surroundings? Maybe keeping up the appearance of not being in a relationship with the girl you've loved for years isn't a good idea? Bottling anger at the situation might make the latter worse? Getting a mortal wound is really good for clearing the air after a horrific fight?

He let out a long sigh and closed his eyes. Maybe the lesson was somewhere in all of it? This is why he didn't meditate he told himself, it always led to an ever circling existential crisis and over thought. He had enough to manage in his psyche, he didn't need to make it worse. Despite all the pain and confusing thoughts he had from it; he was in a way glad for the past week. Gar's time with Raven felt more healing than any treatments Cy could give, any haste his body could do to heal, and any magics Raven could cast. He wondered if Raven felt the same about it. He knew his presence hadn't upset her. Hell she plopped him in her room, and let him stay there even after he could get up and move on his own. He had noticed the lack of outbursts. At all. Few flare ups, flickering lights here or there, but nothing extreme. So maybe he was helping her too? He certainly hoped he was...

Raven's scent is what first roused him from the nap he didn't know he had slipped into. His senses told him she was leaning over him. Gar cracked open an eye to look at her. She was simply leaning slightly over him, just looking at him with her amazing violet eyes. He just took her in for a moment. Her hair just falling over the sides of her round face, full lips curled into the smallest of smiles. Her arms folded under her chest, making her breasts stick out just a bit more. Her soft but still smooth stomach leading into her wide hips peaking from under her shirt. Which in turn lead to those legs that just seem to go on forever in the best possible way.

"I really do enjoy waking up this way." Gar smiled wide up at her, opening up both eyes..

"Which part, me being here, or simply ogling me?" Raven quirked an eyebrow at him.

He lightly shrugged. "Both, really."

"Hrm." She narrowed her eyes in false disdain as he continued his toothy grin. She didn't have it in her to admit that she had been doing the same when she walked in on him sleeping. Sure, snoring with your mouth open as your head hangs behind you, slumped in a bean bag chair isn't the most flattering a man could look. But it didn't detract from the lean muscles of his arms and chest, the ever so light stubble on his slightly more squared jaw, the increasingly shaggy hair that he gets to look just the right amount of messy. That damn fang that stuck out. He had two, why did just the one jut out like that? They've known each other for years. Roughly half that time they've considered themselves a couple, or at least entangled in some way. And she had yet to figure out the mystery of his adorable fang. She sighed within her mind, 'Another time.'

"Well, enjoy me later, we got a meeting to go to." Raven stood back up to start walking out of the room.

"And by 'enjoy me'...you mean?" Gar's tone was mischievous.

"You know what I meant, damnit!" She yelled back through the door. Raven hated when she forgot a hood in her civvies.

"Never hurts to ask." Gar grinned as he leapt up and followed her towards the common room.

"I'm pretty sure all the times I've thrashed you about prove that statement wrong, Gar." Raven's eyebrow raised as she continued walking forward.

"Details." Gar waved off the reality of the statement with his hand as he caught up to walk beside her. "'sides, shouldn't have to worry about that too much anymore, right?" He tentatively weaved their hands together. He genuinely wasn't sure what her reaction would be.

Raven stopped mid-step for a moment, looking down at their joined hands, and ever so slightly smiled. "No, I guess not." Gar grinned widely, but her smile stayed small. "Unless you fuck up royally, then you're fair game." Gar's smile went a bit strained. Yes, they've been together technically for a while. And yes, he should know when she's joking. But it's this middle ground she finds that torments him. Which, Raven of course knew and exploited for her own personal enjoyment. She leaned up a little and kissed him sweetly, before continuing through the main doors into the common area, semi-dragging him along by the hand as he remained mildly stunned.

They were the last to arrive, everyone else already lounging about the couches. They were all in uniform as Nightwing stood in front of the TV and Donna stood off to the side. They jointly stared, little moment forgotten

"Shit, is this a costume thing?" Gar looked at the others as they looked at them in their lounge wear.

"It's okay, guys, just go ahead and take a seat." Nightwing sighed. He did forget to tell Raven before fetching Gar, so his fault, really.

Raven and Gar settled on the last empty corner of the couch, next to Rose.

"You took your sweet time, what, being all lovey dovey on the way here?" Rose raised an eyebrow under her mask.

"Sorta." They near synchronized.

"Gross." Rose replied flatly.

Their attention went to the front of the room when Nightwing gave a small "Ahem." He looked at them for a moment, just taking in the make shift family before him, then started. "So, there's a few things to go over today. One of them is that...well, you guys know I have a new costume and codename, but that also came with a mission. Batman wants me in Bludhaven to keep an eye on the city; and of course where I go, Kory wants to come with me." He paused to let it sink in to the team. Vic was stoic; he had an idea this was gonna happen. Donna didn't express shock, but fidgeted in her spot ever so slightly. Wally and Gar shared a near identical look somewhere between shocked, sad and proud for their friend. Raven and Jinx looked...well, their normal selves. Neither was one to express more than they had to in these moments. "I already asked Donna, and she's willing to stay on here, and I want to extend that to Wally and Jinx. If you two are willing, would you be up for stationing here for a long haul?"

Wally looked at Jinx, who looked back at him with a curious wide smile.

"What?" She raised an eyebrow.

"You said I didn't get a say in the important ones." He grinned.

"Well...it'd be nice to be in one place for a while, even if it is here." Jinx folded her arms and leaned back. "We'd have to transfer from Keystone College though."

"Shouldn't be an issue." Wally nodded, then looked at Dick. "Alright, we're in."

Dick smiled at them. "Awesome."

"Why three of us though, if Vic's staying on?" Donna's face was thoughtful. "Jump City's not as active as it used to be."

"No it isn't." Vic spoke up. "I'm just going to be preoccupied. When I was at the tower earlier this week, J'onn asked if I was up to being the League's liaison for the Titans."

Gar's head snapped in his direction. "Dude, and you didn't say anything?!"

"I had to think it over, man. Plus I was kinda busy, y'know. Monitoring your vitals." Vic shrugged halfheartedly.

"I guess that's fair." Gar leaned back in his seat with a fanged grin. "So are you just gonna lounge about here, get a desk. Take phone calls from all over?"

Cyborg rolled his eyes. Well. The one that could still roll. "I'm going to be hopping between towers and the League HQ's, trying to set up stronger channels of communication. We have a lot of ad hoc lines in place since a good chunk of Titans started out as side ki-" Vic stopped himself when both Donna and Dick's eyes twitched. "-err, partners, but not every tower's got those connections. So, I can help smooth that over, since I've practically help set up every tower and have good report with the League." He leaned back in his spot. "I mean, this is always going to be home for me, but I'm not always gonna be here, y'know?"

The others nodded. It was definitely a needed thing. As they absorbed both chunks of info, Gar was struck by a thought.

"Wait. Does...does this mean I'm in charge of the Titans?" He looked up at Dick.

"Yep." Dick smiled warmly at him. "You've got a knack for it, man."

"I..I don't know what to say other than I wish I was wearing actual pants for this." Gar looked down at his pajama pants almost thoughtfully. Raven's hand slowly went to her face, as Rose turned to her.

"You chose this. I want you to know that." Rose reminded her.

"I am aware." Raven grumbled.

Dick did his best to not crack a smile, Cyborg didn't even try and hide his laughing.

"We...can put something more meaningful in later as your first words accepting leadership of the team..." Dick awkwardly shuffled in his spot.

"Sorry, just felt, put on the spot, man." Gar grinned as he scratched the back of his head. "I just hope I don't let y'all down."

Wally leaned on his knees from his side of the couch, "Well, you haven't yet."

Jinx raised an eyebrow. "Yet being the operative word there."

"Love the vote of confidence." Gar's face fell a little.

Jinx winked at him. "You're welcome."

"...So what was the second big thing?" Gar asked, trying to shift focus.

"Ah, that's Donna's thing" Dick said cheerfully "Donna?"

Donna took Dick's spot in front of the TV, holding her notes tablet, which she was tapping at. As she did, the screen switched to show several pictures, old newspaper clipping images and various notes of some sort.

"Okay, as you guys know, as I've been doing notes over the summer, I kept finding little connections. Nothing major just, things like this," The screen focused on a news headline Kord Industries R&D broken into, company unwilling to disclose what was taken. It flips to another headline Attempted break in at Waynetech branch in Jump City, suspects at large. Another one; Lexcorp denies any break in attempt occurred at their remote facility in North Dakota; the reported fires were said to be 'completely controlled tests "And so on and so on." Donna flickered through several other headlines of a similar nature.

"So it's all that one gang going around?" Wally raised an eyebrow. "Because if so that problem should be solved by them being...y'know. Dead."

"No, all the images recovered indicate it's all sorts of gangs. Low level, like the goons we fought, all the way up to the Royal Flush Gang. And everything in between. But they're all going after the same kinda tech; mostly related to experimental physics work." Donna crossed her arms, tapping the tablet to her arm as she talked. "There was a similar kind of spree, but with a different focus about ten years ago. And that uncovered something disturbing. Who here is familiar with Gorilla Grodd?"

Wally's hand shot up like a bolt.

"Besides Wally." There was a mix of murmured responses.

"What kinda idiot calls himself Gorilla Grodd?" Rose snorted.

Wally turned to look at Rose. "He's literally a telepathic gorilla from an hidden advanced society of gorillas who live deep in Africa."

"...You're making that up."

"No, he isn't." Donna tapped at her tablet again, bringing up images of a larger than average gorilla standing at full height, wearing a strange helmet and one small video of Grodd in action. In the video he was mind controlling people in a building to empty out it's warehouse into a truck. "Grodd was fairly successful in his tech heists, used to fuel his experiments. Unfortunately for him, he eventually ended up in the Central-Keystone twin city area."

The next footage shown was a cellphone video of Grodd roaring in the middle of an abandoned city street. A barely seen red blur streaked by him, his helmet was now gone. As he went to grab at where it used to be a yellowish blur went by him, knocking him off his feet. Grodd shook his head, before standing up and roaring in anger at the direction the yellow streak went before both came from behind him and then past him, causing him to land face first in the pavement. Before he even had a chance to get up, both blurs swirled around him, and then stopped and settled into Flash and Kid Flash, Grod now in a cage they had apparently just built. They high fived as Grodd pulled at the bars in fury. The clip ended as Kid Flash tried to offer him a banana, and then stopped fully as Grodd decked him away.

"Was it worth it, man?" Cyborg looked over at Wally.

"It. Was. Hilarious." Wally grinned.

"Afterwards, Grodd experienced more defeats, not just at the hands of Flash" There was an ahem from the couch "And Kid Flash," "Thank you" "but Batman, Superman, Green Arrow...so on and so forth. Grodd is not one to take defeat well. And so he started making connections with other big supercriminals. There was already a loose network in place but he started to reinforce it; turning casual association into a full fledged cooperative supply chain. Need a bothersome politician killed? How? What's your price? We know a guy who knows the guy you need. Piece of advanced tech? Who makes it? How much? We can get it. This kind of thing. Eventually, what became known as the Secret Society of Supervillains began to move as a more cohesive unit. Organizing breakouts for necessary big plans. Causing big attacks on one side of the planet so they could do what they really needed to do elsewhere. They lasted a solid five or so years, before the Justice League tracked them down, or at least pieced together that it existed. The big surge that happened before the core Titans formed? The one that allowed for Dick to even be able to duck out of Gotham without a fuss? That was the society being torn down."

Raven, Starfire and Cyborg stared kinda blankly at this, while the others kinda nodded absentmindedly.
"Even the Doom Patrol got involved in some of clean up, I mean, Mento focused on the Brotherhood links in the chain, but still collaborated more than he usually does." Gar thought out loud.

"I just remember dad being gone more than usual, which is pretty impressive given his track record." Rose chipped in.

Donna nodded. "So yeah problem solved, right? Until earlier this year. Maybe earlier, I didn't start following it until I was reading over Dick's notes. He had the loose hints of the pattern, but I started just...picking at it, just a bit. I had a gut feeling about the break ins and everything. And this last run in kinda clenched it for me; though Grodd's been locked up a while, or at least has more or less gone back to doing his own thing, someone's picked up the pieces. The networks were either never lost or have been put back together, but deeper underground. And there's more involvement overall now. This is all early though. And as Diana said when I went over this with her, it could all just be paranoia."

"Which is what I'd say if my work with Batman over the summer didn't show similar trends." Dick added. "We need something more concrete, something tangible. Luckily, I think you guys may have solved that a while back."

The group on the couch had their own version of confused play out on their faces. Well, save Rose. She still looked pretty bored. Donna tapped at the tablet again, bringing up the most recent mug shot of Johnny Rancid.

"He was frozen at the end of the last battle with the Brotherhood of Evil. Someone had to unfreeze him, and the others who've been reappearing. And unlike Adonis, who we know won't say shit, we have something to make him squeal." Dick grinned darkly.

Jump City Jail, the next day

Johnny tapped an off beat with his leg out of boredom. The pigs said he had questions to answer, put him in a room, cuffed him to the chair, then left. That was ten minutes ago. The room was barren, not even a table. But there was the standard 'mirror' to the side, the bars in the front. The usual bullshit. He was getting ready to start yelling at them to hurry it up when he started hearing the squeak of a hand cart's wheels approaching with footsteps. The door to the room automatically slid open, revealing two of his favorite people; Kid Flash and...was that Robin? Kid Flash was pushing the cart which he noticed had a decent sized television on it.

"What's with the new duds, bird boy? Upgrading to better bondage gear?" Johnny grinned at him. He was ignored-he hated that-as KF finished rolling the cart in front of him. They stood at either side of the screen, Robin holding the remote in his hand.

"How're you enjoying your stay, Rancid?" Nightwing asked coolly.

"Food ain't half bad since someone shanked the old cook. Bed's still need work though." Johnny snorted then spit on the floor. "What you chuckle fucks want?"

"We got some questions about your any of your contacts with the Brotherhood of Evil. And hopefully, you'll answer them." Kid Flash said in his best official voice. Johnny laughed.

"Yeah, lemme just tell you everything I know. Fuck you guys. Why should I say shit?" Johnny growled out.

"Thought you'd say that, so here's what we're gonna do; The longer you don't tell us something, we're going to have someone work on your bike." Nightwing said extremely pleasantly.

"Okay...annnd this threatens me how? Quick piss here knows his shit, so does that metal dicked buddy of yours. What do I have to worry about?"

"Oh, it ain't either of them that's gonna work on it." Nightwing clicked on the the screen. It showed a video feed of inside the Tower's garage, with Johnny's bike in the center of the shot. Nightwing put his free hand to his ear. "Alright, camera's on."

"Gotcha." came from the screen, as Beast Boy wandered into frame, leaning on the bike awkwardly, giving a wide grin. " 'Sup buddy?"

Johnny's eyes went wide, face dropping in terror as he looked between the two Titans in the room. "You wouldn't."

"We would and we did." Kid Flash grinned.

On the screen, Beast Boy started adjusting a side mirror, trying to take a look at his teeth, trying to pick out something. He sneezed and snapped the mirror he was holding off the bike. "Oops." He held the mirror for a second, looking sheepishly around before tossing it over his shoulder behind the bike.

Johnny whimpered.

"So" Nightwing started. "Let's do the easy one. Who let you and your buddies out of the freeze?"

"I...I don't...I don't know who it was, okay?" Johnny looked frantically between the two. "I just woke up thawed outside town, I swear!"

Nightwing looked over at Kid Flash, who shook his head. Nightwing put his hand to his ear again. "Alright, BB."

"Okay! Let's see what this...hrm." Beast Boy started tugging at the muffler on the back of the bike. After having no luck prying it loose, he shifted into a gorilla, then pulled it off with a satisfying popping crunch. He shifted back, still holding the part. "Cool, think I got the transmission off!"

Even Kid Flash winced at that one. "Just gonna let you know, I know for a fact that he's not faking that lack of knowledge."

Johnny just stared in abject horror at the screen. "Okay...okay, I didn't see who they were, but there were like...organized goons, y'know? Matching outfits and shit like that, yeah?"

"Anything stick out in your brain about their outfits?" Nightwing pressed.

"They...they had bits of purple and green on them? They really did just kinda dump me outside of town, I'm not bullshitting about that."

On the screen, Starfire had flown in and was talking to Beast Boy.

"How goes the interrogations?" She asked chipperly.

"Dunno, can't really hear anything on this end. They haven't said anything in a few, so I guess-" Beast Boy had gone to lean on the bike, but that caused it to fall over with a loud crunching noise. "Shit!"

He initially tried to right it back up himself, but had difficulties. Starfire lifted it up with one hand and then let it drop back onto the ground with a wrenching thump.

"Thanks, Star."

"It is of no difficulty, Beast Boy." She moved her way off screen, waving at whomever was watching with a wide smile.

Johnny almost could cry. "Look, I can tell you were the Brotherhood is based right now, just, get those idiots away from my bike!"

"Cuttin' to the chase. Works for me." Nightwing grinned. "Where's the base?"

Johnny breathed out. "It's...It's in B-" He seized up, as if he was being electrocuted. He shook in his chair, making a gurgling, strangled noise from his throat as his head went back in pain, before finally slumping over.

Kid Flash and Nightwing stared.

"Uhm." Kid Flash stared as Nightwing went over, carefully pulling Johnny's head up. It was not pretty. His face was still contorted in pain. Pinkish foam was dripping from his mouth, as blood seeped from his eyes, ears and nose. Nightwing put his fingers to Johnny's neck, unsurprised to find no pulse.

"Damnit." Nightwing grumbled. Jail staff were just beginning to flood the room to look over Johnny's body as Nightwing stepped away.

"Hey, Guys, what's going on?" Beast Boy asked from the monitor.

"Our lead went dead." Kid Flash said flatly over his comm.

"What, decided to clam up?"

"No he literally just died." Nightwing responded.

"...what?" Beast Boys eyes went wide. "Oh...oh shit, did we go too far with the bike thing?"

Nightwing sighed "Beast Boy that wasn't-"

"Shit, shit, shit." Beast Boy put his hands in his hair. "Did I help kill a dude? Because if I'm part of that, I'm gonna need, like, a year off."

"Beast Boy." Nightwing said firmly, causing the green man to still on the screen. "It wasn't us. Or at least doesn't look like us. Someone must've had a trigger in him in case he started talking."

"Jesus. Who the hell would do that?" Beast Boy kept his hands in his hair, thinking over the brutality of it.

Brotherhood of Evil Headquarters

A large gorilla in a red beret, wearing bandoleers, finished typing at the keyboard in front of him, causally closing the screen that had a picture of Johnny Rancid's face, with the word "Voided" next to it. A mechanical stand, a large skull imprinted on the front, topped by a brain encased in liquid appeared to watch from it's unmoving casing a short distance away.

"And nothing of value was lost." The Brain's speech modulator echoed.

Back at the Tower

Gar sat on the couch, curled into himself on a single cushion. Raven was gently rubbing his back as he matained his mildly panicked expression from earlier. Dick and Wally had been stuck in the jail for the past 30 minutes, they'll probably be there longer seeing as a high profile suspect just died in there custody. Leaving just Gar at home to try and wrap his mind around someone either planting a murder bomb in another person (seriously, who would do that?!), or the rampant, paranoid, cascading intrusive thought that he had some how killed a man by messing with his precious motorcycle.

Rose saw the two of them on the couch; "What's up with greeny?"

"He thinks he may have accidentally killed someone, even though there's no way he could've." Raven sighed.

"Oh sweet, you popped that murder cherry, precious?" Rose grinned as she leaned over the back of the couch to look at Gar. He made a weird whimpering noise as Raven glared at the white haired woman.

"Didn't you have a patrol to pick up?" Raven glowered from the couch, to which Rose just continued to grin.

"Yeah, yeah." Rose ruffled Gar's hair a bit. "Don't worry, the first is always the worst, it gets better with time. Catch ya later, killer!"

Gar made the same whimpering noise as Rose cackled as she headed to the elevator. Raven continued both her glare and rubbing of Gar's back as the doors closed with a small ding. She let out another sigh.

"Really, I don't know why you're beating yourself up over the slightest hint of a possibility you've done something wrong, Gar."

"...It was a life, Rae. A shitty life, yeah. But still a life. It may not have been my fault, or any of our faults, but somebody still died on our watch." Gar put his face in his knees. "That's on us."

Raven remained silent. He did this when things went wrong in this manner. Took it inside himself to process, compress and then one of two things would happen: He would be able to let go, or it would be added to his seemingly endless list of things he felt guilty for. She had a strong suspicion that this would fall under the first category, but even to her, Gar's moods could be a little unpredictable.

"This very much seems like a situation that was beyond our control." Raven's hand slid up from his back, up his neck and into his hair, talking as smoothly as she could, "And yes, while that idiot was under our watch, he wasn't entirely our responsibility. Especially yours. You were here. You didn't even see whatever happened."

Gar sat and absorbed what she said, just enjoying the feeling of her fingers in his hair. "Yeah. I guess there's not too much I coulda done anyways, right?" He moved his head to the side to look at her.

"Last I checked, you cannot go through TV's." Raven raised an eyebrow at him.

"Hey, ya never know. There may be an animal who can travel that way that we haven't found yet." Gar looked up thoughtfully. "Time to go cryptid diving again."

Yup, he was back to normal. "Just don't stay up all night wiki diving again; Robin's going to start putting us on patrol again and you get up late enough as it is." Raven poked his arm.

"Yes, ma'am." Gar grinned at her. He was totally going to stay up all night on his phone wiki diving cryptids.

Elsewhere...

What remained of the H.I.V.E. Five lounged about their hide out. Shambles wasn't perhaps the most accurate word to describe it's state, but it had certainly seen better days. The monitors Gizmo used were cracked, the couch was almost half duct tape now, completely sagged under the continuous task of trying to hold up Mammoth's immense frame, the rest of the area made of patch work and the occasional rusted metal sheet. Time had not been kind to the Five; well four now. Kyd Wykkid and Angel had long since left to do a Bonnie and Clyde thing, though no one was sure where. Private Hive had decided to actually join the military, and due to his preexisting training, they took him. And Billy Numerous, finally having enough of city life, returned to his home some where in the vague area of the country known as the "Deep South". This left Gizmo, Mammoth, See-More and the only new member to the crew, the recently busted out of jail sister of Mammoth, Shimmer. The only thing between the two that could be seen as sibling like was hair color. Maybe as she kept hers died an ever rotating selection of neon colors. Currently, pink. She was thin, waifish even, and kept to a leather, biker kind of look. She pretty rapidly earned her place among them when she almost caused See-More to be stuck in the floor after turning it into sand after he tried to hit on her. (Of course the added threat of Mammoth removing his spine did a lot to steer him off that as well.)

They had settled into a decent, if mostly unproductive groove. Small heists for supplies, the occasional big run at a bank for cash, which usually was a 50/50 shot of either getting away from the Titans or getting caught and having to escape the cops. Mammoth could do the occasional muscle job, See-More and Gizmo could get repair gigs for other crooks floating in and out of town, nobody bothered Shimmer about money; but all in all, no big scores, nothing exciting that could seriously catch attention. It was getting harder though, and frankly, almost not worth the effort. The Titans had refined their powers and skills over the years, and the police force had just in general adapted to super-criminal activity, almost being able to rival Metropolis or Central City in it's capability.

In summation; their situation was fucked.

As Gizmo would remind the others daily, and usually with heavy amounts of vulgarity.

Currently, he was in his work area, being suspended in hair with metallic spider legs, tinkering and reading news articles on his goggles when he stumbled across something relatively shocking. "Holy fucking shit!"

"What?" See-More looked over after punching the microwave to get it to work.

"Fuckin' Johnny Rancid ate it in jail!"

There was a pause, only interrupted by the microwave beeping.

"Ate what?" Mammoth asked, looking over the back of the couch. Shimmer lazily looked up at him with a combination of pity and disdain.

"He died, dumbass." Gizmo grumbled.

"Oh. OH. ...Shit." Mammoth let it sink in for a moment. " Does it say how?"

"Notta damn thing concrete, just he died unexpectedly." Gizmo sat back in thought. "Well let's just fix that shall we?" He let out a cackle as he opened up his hacking software. "Time to see some videos!"

In very little time, Gizmo had made his way into the jail system's data storage. After making a quick search, he found the relevant video file. "Found ya, found ya..." He grinned to himself; at this point it was less about finding out how Rancid died, and more about breaking and entering in the digital realm. He hit play and sat back, satisfied with his little victory...at least he was until the Titans walked in. "Wait. Titans?! Were they..?"

"Were they what?" See-More unwrapped his burrito carefully.

"Wait, Titans were there?" Mammoth continued to look over at Gizmo, his interest actually peaked. Shimmer continued to stare at the TV in front of the couch, eyes occasionally moving to the side to look at her brother's reactions.

"Shut it, shut it, it's not done yet!" Gizmo yelled at the others, continuing to watch the moment play out. "Standard interrogation bullshit. Robin's got a new costume, meh, looked better in the cape...boring...boring...I'm bored now...THERE WE GO!" He watched as Johnny jerked and shook violently in his chair before going limp. "Woah...brutal." He grinned widely as he stopped the tape.

"So what happened?" Mammoth raised an eyebrow.

"Looked like he must've said something that pissed off who ever got us out and they hit the trigger." Gizmo shrugged.

"What 'trigger'?" See-More asked, mouth full.

"The kill switches all of us got after being thawed. So we didn't give anything away." Gizmo said this as if it was the most boring day's weather.

"I don't remember getting a trigger." Mammoth stared.

"None of us do, I just found nano's in our blood stream after we got home. Figured that's what it was, just got my proof." Gizmo grinned.

"You checked your blood when we got home...like, first thing?" See-more's eye narrowed in confusion.
"You don't?" Gizmo looked at the others.

"Not...not a thing I'm good at, dude." Mammoth was at least honest.

"Meh, you guys just need to be more paranoid." Gizmo started to turn back to his work.

"Gizmo's right; a bit of paranoia is very healthy." An unknown voice said from the dark hallway leading to the dorm area.

Immediately, they all turned towards the hall, each jumping up, ready to attack.

"It's okay, it's okay." The figure slowly emerged out the dark, wearing a black hooded robe with purple sleeves, and purple slacks, arms folded behind his back. "I'm not here to fight, I promise."

"And who the hell are you mr. fuckin' mystery?!" Gizmo was pulling a large...gun?...off his work table.

"What, don't recognize an old colleague? I'm hurt." He lifted his hands, lowering the hood to reveal an older man, whose most defining feature was his brain being encased in a transparent dome.

"Psimon? You got thawed too?" See-more relaxed with Mammoth and Shimmer doing the same, Gizmo still seemed weary.

"Of course; our benefactors wanted as many assets as possible, and I was deemed a very valuable one." Psimon smiled sardonically, putting a hand on his chest in a dramatic fashion.

"And why the fuck is that?" Gizmo muttered loudly, keeping his gun(?) aimed at Psimon.

"First," Psimon looked Gizmo in the eyes "Psimon says you should put down the weapon. It's rude to hold one during a conversation, don't you think?"

Gizmo's face went blank for a moment. "Yeah, I guess so." He dropped the gun-thing with a loud clatter, before grabbing his head. "Oh...goddamnedfuckingpsychicpieceofshit..." He groaned all at once.

"That's better." Psimon kept his grin. "I'm here to offer you all a part in our benefactor's venture. I can definitely see you all lack..." His smile faded as he looked around the dingy common area. "guidance, and they feel I could be the best to provide that."

"With mind control?" See-more folded his arms.

Psimon laughed. "No, no. I shall refrain from using such tactics unless I'm threatened. I'm here to be your contact with them. To allow you the resources you need, to get the things you deserve."

"What's the catch?" Shimmer shifted as she stood, hand on her hip, face in the vague appearance of annoyance. The boys almost all looked at her. They were pretty sure this was the first full sentence she had said this month. At least directly to someone she wasn't threatening.

"All that is asked is that when they call, you answer. Provide the help you can when needed, and the rest of the time is yours to do as you please." Psimon continued his dark grin.

The four former H.I.V.E. Members looked amongst themselves, each wondering who would speak for them first.

"Fuck it, I'm in." Shimmer folded her arms. "It's not like we're doing anything anyways."

"If she's in, I'm in." Mammoth grinned as his sister rolled her eyes.

"Well..." See-more looked at his microwaved burrito. "Maybe we can start getting' real food. I'm down."

They all looked at Gizmo.

"The fuck you guys lookin' at me for? I'm in godfuckindamnit!" Gizmo yelled at the others.

"Excellent." Psimon clapped his hands together. "Welcome, friends, to the Secret Society of Super Villains...and I believe, together we shall make something fearsome."

A/N: Holy shit. First new chapter. Day after the last reduxed one. I mean, y'all probably can see what the next chapter's gonna have...hopefully. I have a road map for the last chapter, and how much it'll set up for more stories down the road. I know at one point there was a lemon planned to be worked into this story but uhm...it just felt...out of place? I kind've been jumping away from those scenes through out the story, and only hinted at other parts, so it just seemed...unneeded. Now, I do intend to do a story of Raven and Gar's...explorations in that area. Half to see if I can, and do it well and half to make up for ancient promises of putting citrus in this fic at one point.

The last chapter is going to main cap of the story overall. And 13 is gonna be epilogue...which may be a sign of things to come. I aim to have it out by the end of the month. Ideally.

Alright, anyone whose been following this from the beginning; thank you so much. Anyone who just hopped on as I've been updating things, thank you so much. People who just clicked on this and made it this far out of boredom? Thank you so much. Please, review if you'd be so kind. Again; Thanks y'all for reading! - Tearlach