"What do you mean, hands-off?" Garfield protested, voicing the concerns of the Titans as they recuperated in Titans Tower. Their living room served as the briefing room, a large screen displaying the cowled visage of Batman - only the bottom half of his face was visible, leaving his mouth and square jaw exposed, and even his eyes were covered by some kind of flexible white material that changed with the raising and lowering of his brows, currently set into a stern line. Two stiff spines jutted up from the top of his iconic cowl, like the ears of the night dwelling animal that was his namesake.

Raven sat in the corner of the room, knowing that she had to be here for the debrief, but the intense emotions that rolled off the Titans were making it difficult to meditate. The emotions of her friends resonated with her - the anger, the uncertainty, the humiliation of being so easily defeated, and now the indignant disbelief at Batman, the current leader of the Justice League alongside Superman.

"It means what I just said. As of right now, the case of Tarble is not your concern. You are not to pursue, nor engage," Batman repeated, his tone unyielding. Anger rolled off of Tim in waves, only matched by his humiliation. He took their defeat as a personal failing. He had led them into the situation. He thought that it was his fault that Adonis was executed. That he hadn't known how outmatched they were. There wasn't anyone harder on themselves than Tim Drake when he felt like he made a mistake, real or imaginary. "Tarble is being dealt with by the Justice League."

"He's getting coffee in Metropolis! That's not dealing with anything! He murdered Adonis. Put him on his knees and just…" Garfield couldn't even finish his sentence, his face twisting. Guilt weighed heavily on him. On all of them. They were heroes. They were the first team of heroes in fact, the Justice League only forming a short year ago to the Titan's five years. In that time, there had been many successes… and many failures.

But, few stung quite like this one.

"We understand the extent of Tarble's crimes," Batman said, and she didn't need to be in range to know his emotions. There was anger in his voice. Batman was someone she had the displeasure of meeting only a few times - Raven didn't care for him, but she did feel bad for him. He always seemed to be filled with a tempered rage that was left simmering just under the surface, and after Jason's murder, there was an even deeper wound. She thought he was a good man, but a deeply flawed one.

Tim spoke up, "Then why isn't anything being done?" He pressed, looking up at Batman, unflinching when his attention turned to him.

"Your defeat was caused by ignorance," Batman began, his tone cold. Clinical. Much like a surgeon cutting out a tumor, he cut into their mistakes and presented them. "You acted on unreliable and spotty information without understanding the enemy you fought. What information that you did have, you never should have had in the first place. Titans - you are all fine heroes, but you are all lucky to be alive."

Raven found herself in agreement, taking in a deep breath as she soothed her own emotions. Harmony was a rare thing, but she could control her feelings. Most of all, she kept a tight grip on the most dangerous emotion of all - her rage. A gift from her father.

"So, we should have done nothing?" Tim half questioned, half biting the words out. "We just let him take over Earth because he thinks he owns it?"

Batman's eyes narrowed, "I expect," his voice was equally harsh, even if it never rose or fell an octave, "for you all to exercise proper judgment. The fact of the matter is that if you hadn't blatantly disregarded my rules, you wouldn't have known about Tarble at all. If you hadn't, then perhaps you wouldn't have been so eager to engage. Then, maybe, Adonis would still be alive." Tim flinched, Batman likely echoing his own thoughts.

"I do not think that is fair, Batman," Starfire responded, frowning at him. "It is true that Robin should not have hacked into your computers, but fighting unknown enemies is what heroes do. Unless you claim to know everything about a situation and the villains that perpetrated it every time you engage?" Raven smiled ever so slightly - Starfire had slipped into ' Mom-Mode' , as Garfield was so fond of saying.

To that, Batman had no response.

"The Titans don't answer to the Justice League," Raven spoke up, making the attention of the room shift to her. "If you want us to avoid Tarble, then you have to give us a reason to. Convince us that you have the situation in hand rather than issuing orders." She said, Tim looking at her with a blank expression, but she felt his gratitude. Every Robin had trouble with confronting Batman, it would seem.

Batman, however, was nothing if not adaptable, "The Justice League is attempting to resolve the situation peacefully. The intel that we received from Hal Jordan and John Stewart seems to have come with some level of bias against Tarble, and as such, Tarble is currently acting well outside of the expected parameters." He admitted, and Raven could guess what he meant by that. Until he murdered Adonis, Tarble had been… polite. Pleasant even. It was difficult to imagine him performing anything he was accused of before that, or even the things he admitted to. "Which is why the Justice League is trying diplomacy."

Garfield frowned, "And if it works? Tarble just gets to leave Earth? He doesn't get punished for murder?" He questioned while his frown deepened, anger welling in his chest. "We just let him go back out to the galaxy to do whatever he wants to?" The question was on everyone's minds. What would a diplomatic victory look like?

Tarble had done terrible things by his own admission. On a scale that he was right to say that they couldn't imagine. Billions of lives snuffed out in a war that left entire planets devastated. Raven could imagine it better than most, but the idea of letting someone like that go, that had performed acts of such evil that the only person she could compare him to was her father… Releasing him onto the galaxy in exchange for getting him to leave Earth alone didn't sit well with her.

"At the time, all possibilities are being considered," Batman responded, his tone flat. No hint of emotion. That told Raven all that she needed to know. He was not in favor of letting Tarble go even with a diplomatic victory. "There are factors that… complicate things. For now, for your own sakes, do not engage Tarble. Batman out."

And with that, the call ended. Almost as soon as the screen went black, Garfield threw his head into his hands and groaned.

"That's it?! Twiddle our thumbs while a mass murderer is on the loose?!" He protested, unhappy with the decision. He kicked an empty pizza box, sending the cardboard flying. He rounded on everyone else, clearly expecting them all to be just as unhappy as he was.

Jamie, however, looked crestfallen, "I'm sorry. I should have been with you guys. I… I just saw a chance to get that thing off of me, and…" he trailed off, his shoulders slumping. His remorse was genuine. But unneeded. Jamie had been looking for a way to remove the Scarab for over a year and resigned himself to being unable to ever be free of it. No one blamed him for jumping at a chance to remove it.

"There is nothing to be sorry for, Jamie," Kori reassured.

Jamie hung his head low, not believing it in the slightest. He touched his chest, feeling phantom pains from the blast Tarble sent through him to destroy the Scarab. Sadly, Raven couldn't do anything about that. She could only heal physical wounds.

"We're going after this guy, right?" Garfield pressed, looking to everyone in the room before their eyes settled on Tim. Their leader.

Tim's lips thinned, "Batman is right about one thing - we went into the situation with a fraction of the information we needed." He began, "And that's my fault. Worse, the Fearsome Five escaped." For the first time, their number truly was five.

"They will not accept the murder of their friend so easily," Kori spoke up, her tone sad. Raven agreed with her. They would go to ground as they always did, but their target was obvious when they resurfaced. They would plan out how to kill Tarble - if it would work was anyone's guess, but the Fearsome Five were capable of anything when properly motivated.

"Kori - you said you knew about Tarble? The Hero Force?" Tim questioned, earning a broad smile in response. It seemed that Kori had fond memories because she seemed genuinely happy to recall the show. Nostalgia? Or were those memories attached to something or someone else?

Kori nodded, "Children all across the galaxy know of the Hero-Force. Tarble, the Low-Class Prince, fights across the galaxy in the name of peace and justice against the evil Reach Empire! My sister and I would watch it every day during our time on Okaara, even when it wasn't used as study materials."

Raven tilted her head, "Is it a kid's show or a war documentary?" She questioned, making Kori think on it.

"Both? There were a great many shows about Prince Tarble. Sadly, I did not get to watch them all." She said, and Raven took in a deep breath as she tightly bound her anger. Kori cared little for the tragedies of her past. She accepted that they happened and fueled her desire to prevent them from happening to others, but the pain of them had long since faded for her. However, the Titans could be angry on her behalf - she had been kidnapped, experimented on, imprisoned…

Tim chose to zero in on his plan, "We need to see them. If they're used for study, then they can't be complete works of fiction. If we are going to go after Tarble, then we need to know more."

"By watching alien TV?" Garfield said, mulling it over before he shrugged his shoulders. "I'm okay with that, but how?" He asked, pointing out that Earth hadn't gotten those broadcasts. The answer was rather obvious.

Raven sighed, "Who do we know that's obsessed with TV?" She asked, answering the question with a question, deeply empathizing with the groan that escaped everyone when they all came to the same answer.

…

Control Freak hadn't changed much in the three years it'd been since his last appearance. Long red hair with a receding hairline , overweight, and a thin and scruffy red beard covering his face. He still wore his signature trench coat and combat boots, completing his signature outfit with baggy cargo pants and a white button-down now.

"Hey, I'm retired now! You can't just bust down my door whenever you feel like it!" Control Freak, who now went by his real name of Alexander Polinsky, protested as the Titans arrived. Jamie was left at the tower for his own protection - the Scarab had made him a heavy hitter on the team, but without it… he would always have a place on the Teen Titans, but it was a question of if that place was in an active role.

A blur raced by Raven, blasting her cloak to the side, then back as the blur raced by again. Wally West was a speedster, much like his namesake twice over. Kid Flash, and Wally West, was a dark-skinned man that was around her size in terms of height, putting him on the short side. He was a relatively recent addition to the Titans, replacing the previous Kid Flash. Who had also been named Wally West.

It was about as confusing as it sounded.

"Hey, that's mine!" Control Freak protested, getting out of his chair. They were in his office at a modest home in Malibu - which made the property worth millions by default. After a few years of failing to defeat the Titans, he ended up starting a broadcasting company for TV shows and movies. Raven wasn't sure why he wasn't in prison, but… him just giving up and becoming a successful businessman was also fine with her. So long as people weren't in danger.

"We just need to borrow it for a bit. And ask you something - have you ever received a broadcast from the Trade Organization? About a Prince Tarble?" Tim asked, walking forward in a non-threatening manner. To that, Control Freak scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Who do you think you're talking to? Of course I have," he said, looking down at Robin with an indignant expression. "It is I, Control Freak, after all!" He proclaimed proudly, a cocky smirk on his face. "I just haven't broadcasted anything because of those dumb broadcast laws. People are freaking out over alien subliminal messaging - I swear, it's like the Red Scare or something."

Raven let out a breath of relief while Tim spoke, "We need to see them."

"Uh, why? It's just a bunch of Alien TV. You that desperate for Soap Operas?" He questioned, looking genuinely confused, and it matched what she sensed he was feeling.

He didn't know. "Those shows are based on true stories. The star of them is on Earth." Raven told him, earning a very slow blink from Control Freak. His expression was blank, buy there was a growing sense of unease and fear in him as he came to a conclusion.

"Oh. Yeah. Right. Okay, just give me a second," Control Freak woodenly responded, heading to his desk that was surrounded by a dozen monitors. His reaction caught the others by surprise.

"Dude, that's it?" Garfield questioned, looking at their old enemy with stunned surprise. He traded a look with Wally, who just shrugged, while Control Freak started pulling up various TV shows on his monitors.

Control Freak didn't look at them as he responded, "I thought that stuff was all made up. You know, alien dramatization and whatever. But if Prince Tarble is real… then I don't want him on Earth. I don't want him anywhere near Earth. And by the end of this, you won't want him here either." He responded, his tone grave. He turned to look at them, a tv series on each screen. All of them revolved around Prince Tarble. "The guy is super famous. These are just the TV shows about him. There are like a hundred documentaries about him, his exploits, his armies, and his race. That's not counting the spin-offs."

Tim frowned, "Titans, we're splitting up." He decided, taking the remote from Wally to pointedly return it to Control Freak. A gesture of trust. Control Freak had never been one of the truly dangerous villains. Even with his goal to beat the Titans, they were very rarely ever in life-threatening danger. Which was why Raven could accept that he had just stopped being a villain to start a company.

"Kid Flash, Starfire you're team one. Beast Boy and Raven are team two. Control Freak will be with me. Divide up the shows, take notes but don't linger. Seems like there's a lot of material to work through and not enough time to get through all of it." Tim decided, earning nods all around. Kori made their selections for their group - leaving them with a mix of kid shows, documentaries, and spin-offs over the course of the war.

Control Freak pointed the controller at her and Garfield, "Get ready. And brace yourself," he said before he clicked a button on his remote control. Raven's vision went hazy for a split second before she found that her surroundings had changed. Looking around, she saw that Garfield was standing next to her, so they hadn't been separated.

"Which one did you pick to start?" He questioned, eying the room that they were in while she did the same. It was almost featureless - metal tiled floors, metal walls, metal ceiling with a door on one far wall, and a matching metal bulkhead door on the other side of the room.

Raven answered, "A documentary on the Low-Class Prince-"

Amongst the countless races of Aliens that inhabit the Universe, there are precious few that are as suited for war as the Saiyan Race. A narrator began, making them flinch at the booming voice. As the narrator spoke, both doors opened. Behind the door in front of them, were three child-sized green creatures - blood-red eyes, a body of various shades of green, with each hand-tipped with razor-sharp claws.

Raven looked behind her to see a child. Despite the large age difference, there was no mistaking the child that walked in between two adults, all Saiyans based on the tails wrapped around their waist. His eyes were dark, with a single lock of hair drifting between them, wearing a simple black bodysuit with his tail low to the ground. It was Tarble. He was small. He barely came up to the knees of the other Saiyans.

He… was a cute kid.

Your Power Level is what determines your worth in their society, which is broken into three classes - the Elite-Class, Mid-Class, and Low-Class. The Elite-Class is traditionally only made up of members of the Royal Family of the Saiyan Race, but in theory, anyone with a Power Level over ten thousand can be included into this Class.

The Mid-Class is a rare position of honor amongst the Saiyans, with the Mid-Class traditionally only having an average of ten Saiyans that have a Power Level over five thousand .

Lastly, there is the Low-Class. This Class makes up the majority of the Saiyan population. All the warriors that have a Power Level of below five thousand are included in this class, though it is also the only class that contains a subclass - the Working-Class.

Raven listened, idly noting the flashes of images that displayed what the narrator was talking about. Rows upon rows of infants floating in goop as a measuring tool was used to determine their 'Power Level,' and pictures of various Saiyans - fighters, builders, nurturers. He went into more detail about the Class system, which seemed restrictive, before it settled on the point.

Infants that fall below Power Level ten and below are then sent on an Infiltration Mission - in which they are sent to a planet and expected to conquer it, or die in the attempt to prove themselves worthy of being a Low-Class warrior. As one would expect, over ninety-nine percent of so called infiltration babies do not return. Such a fate nearly befell Prince Tarble, or at this time, the Saiyan simply known as Tarble. Who was born with a Power Level of only fifteen.

"Thats…" Raven muttered unhappily, taking in a deep breath to check her emotions. They were sending babies to die for being weak.

Garfield said nothing in favor of looking at the small Tarble. He was small. So very small. the camera settling on him eying the creatures across from him that were wearing sinister grins. The look on his face... his facial expressions hadn't changed since he was a child, according to the documentary - he still had that same smoldering stare and an expression on his face that bordered on a scowl.

For his weakness, Prince Tarble was not acknowledged by the Royal Family. To be welcomed as a Prince, he would have to prove himself worthy. His father, King Vegeta, gave him an impossible task - to do what no other Saiyan had ever done before and become an Elite-Class Warrior.

"Okay…" Garfield muttered, a foot bouncing impatiently for the documentary to move on. He had little interest in what was going on, but that wasn't a feeling that Raven shared. Tarble walked forward, his hands clenched into his fists as he resolutely approached the two green creatures.

His first step was to defeat three Saibamen, the favored creatures used by Saiyans to train their young.

Raven flinched back when the fight began, the young Tarble throwing himself at the Saibamen, a punch aimed at one in the middle. She expected it to defeat the creature. She had witnessed first hand that Tarble was powerful, but… that had been a mistake. Which is why it was so shocking when the Saibaman grabbed Tarble's arm and broke it with ease. The sound of his bones snapping reverberating throughout the room was sickening, added to by the childlike scream of agony that he released, followed by sinister chuckling from the Saibamen.

Every day, Prince Tarble clashed with the Saibamen, each one vastly more powerful than himself. He was overseen by Bardock, a near-legendary figure among the Saiyans as well as the Employee of the Year for the Trade Organization for over a decade.

Trained by years of working with Garfield, Raven expected a witty comment disparaging the 'Employee of the Year'. Only to fall short, as Garfield like her is too distressed at watching a child get savaged by little green moon men to find the humor in the moment.

The video started and stopped, each time showing the beginning of a clash, and the ending of it. Tarble started standing across from the Saibamen, and each time he laid in a puddle of his own blood, his limbs shattered, and getting stomped on with vindictive glee by the Saibamen. A child. What amounted to a newborn baby for his species.

"Is there a fast-forward button? I really don't want to see this," Garfield muttered, looking away from the sight that seemed to glorify what was happening. Disgust and horror rolled off of him, matching how she felt. This… this was just cruel. Cruel and brutal.

"We don't have the remote," Raven answered as the montage continued. The narrator continued to speak over the violence.

Every day, Prince Tarble fought until he was nearly dead. Each day he would crawl over to a healing pod filled with a special fluid that mended his wounds. Each morning, he would step out of it refreshed and begin all over again. Even as a newborn by his peoples standards, Prince Tarble displayed a trait that would make him a legend amongst his people and the Trade Organization.

Unbreakable willpower.

The montage changed. No longer was Tarble brutalized until he was nearly dead - the change was subtle at the start. He was able to limp back into a round pod. Then he was able to walk. Then he was winning his fights. Until…

Each day, Prince Tarble came back stronger. Wiser. More able. Despite the incredible power difference between him and his enemies, in a mere three months, he closed the gap and slew each Saibaman in combat.

In contrast to the complete one-sided defeat Tarble had suffered at the start, the final fight was a one-sided victory. The Saibamen were unable to touch him, and before long each was killed with the utmost ease, Tarble's expression not even changing as he casually beheaded one with a swipe of his hand.

This is the story of the Low-Class Prince - a story of the weak becoming the strong.

Raven let out a breath as it went to a title screen, looking over at Garfield, who looked at her at the same time. "How much of that do you think was true?" She asked him, even as she settled on an answer of her own.

Garfield shrugged, "I don't know. Seems like a pretty weird thing to make up," he admitted. "But… I'm really hoping that there was some exaggeration going on there. Who does something like that? Who puts a baby in a ring with monsters and has them fight to the death?!" He questioned, deeply unnerved by the mere thought of it. "Not even the worst animals do something that cruel."

Raven found herself agreeing. That had been barbaric. "It's a documentary. Apparently, it's all true," Raven responded, taking in a slow breath. She compared what she had just witnessed to her impression of a much older Tarble. The child version was just a projection, he wasn't real.

But the documentary had echoed her own initial impression of Tarble. The willpower it took to have such a tight grip on his emotions. When Psimon had attempted to invade his mind, he revealed that he was constantly in a state of such agony that merely experiencing it second-hand gave Psimon a seizure. Raven hadn't realized it herself at the time, because Tarble hardly seemed to notice it himself. She had wondered what could make a person capable of enduring something like that.

This answered her questions in the worst possible way. A newborn infant tossed into a room with monsters for three months, where he fought nearly to the death. That was the start of his life.

The documentary continued, and they watched it. Raven took notes to compare to the various other shows that they would end up watching - what was seen across the shows could be considered verified, and what wasn't could be considered exaggeration or fiction. However, that was an issue in itself, Raven thought, watching a three-month-old Tarble go on a suicide mission, sent by his father…

The Destruction of the planet Rockoroad officially began the Reach-Trade Organization war. The native population of incredibly dangerous aliens was all exterminated by the team led by Bardock. A resounding success so great that Lord Frieza himself saw fit to reward the team with a planet - Prince Tarble, with his intense cunning and understanding of galactic politics despite only being three months old, chose a planet that would spell the doom for the Thanagarian Empie more than a decade later - Planet Earth of the Sol system.

Raven wrote that down, intent on verifying the origin of the information. Though, it did seem like the documentary was stretching a bit.

"He helped kill an entire race at three months old," Garfield muttered, his tone grim. Tarble had been right. It was difficult to understand the scope of his crimes. Genocide was the opening title card for the story of his life. The documentary only covered the first portion of his life, quickly moving on to how he had been stuck behind enemy lines for four years.

"He did," Raven agreed. That was the start.

"What should we do with this guy, Raven?" Garfield questioned with a shake of his head, "I mean, we deal with bad guys all the time. But… maybe the Justice League was right. Maybe we should just let them handle this guy."

"I think we should reach the end before we make any final conclusions," Raven decided, watching the documentary of Tarble's life unfold.

And that's what they did.

The documentary was the start of their marathon, only covering things in broad terms with the occasional dip into specifics. It covered the first six years of his life, which was how long it took him to reach the threshold to become Elite-Class. In that time… he killed countless people. Razed entire planets. He killed a Green Lantern. He killed Scarabs. It was war on a scale that… that they hadn't been able to imagine.

It was a short documentary, only about an hour-long, and the playlist immediately jumped into the next series. A longer documentary on how Tarble rose through the ranks of the Trade Organization and how he impacted the war.

Garfield was silent, a rarity for him. Raven was the same, though it was far less rare for her. The more that they watched, the more that was revealed to them. The more the picture of who Tarble was took shape. There was a layer of propaganda that had to be removed, and some things that had to be taken with a pinch of salt, but the events in each were consistent between each broadcast. The timeline was consistent.

The brutal first three months. The suicide mission. Owning earth. Four years behind enemy lines. Killing a Green Lantern. Heroic moments on Rench - fighting an army single handily, stealing valuable data, saving thousands of soldiers which would later on become his personal army. At four years old, he became responsible for leading thousands.

Becoming Elite-Class and officially joining the Royal Family. Numerous successes against the Reach, including breaking something called the Shield Wall. Then a devastatingly short war that ended with the Thanagarian Empire shattered like glass. The deaths of thousands of Green Lanterns in an ambush. A war that expanded wildly out of control in every direction until the entire galaxy was engulfed. A war that ended not long ago, but already had celebratory shows.

The War of Light was a terrible thing. A truly terrible thing. And Tarble had been at the heart of it all.

The only things that changed between the various retellings were things like if Tarble had a romance with some princess, or stories about how he had seduced the general of an enemy army with his handsome looks and incredible drive.

"This is messy," Raven gave her thoughts as a rather lifelike looking Tarble passionately kissed what she was guessing was supposed to be Kori's sister.

"I know - there was no build-up at all-" Garfield began before realizing that's not at all what she meant. He let out a sigh, "Yeah, it is. Do you think … is it his fault?" Garfield asked the question that likely didn't have an answer. One thing that every show had in common was heaps of praise for Tarble taking care of those under his care.

Something that he had proved he cared about, because the first thing he did upon becoming Supreme Commander was to enact widespread reforms to the military that protected soldiers and civilians alike. Compared to his fellow generals and commanders, Tarble at his worst seemed almost tame. At the very least, he was never cruel for the sake of being cruel. There was a reason that his becoming Supreme Commander was treated as a godsend to the companies producing all this media.

Was Tarble a person in a difficult position doing the best he could? Was he a ruthless perpetrator?

Raven didn't know. They had watched the events unfold a dozen times now, each retelling a little different, but… "His personality is missing," Raven said, not answering Garfield's question. "Every piece of media gave us pieces of his history, but Tarble never stated why he did it all. I don't think we can decide whose fault this is until we ask him."

Garfield let out a breath, "Rae…"

"Nothing can justify any of this. The entire war was vile. But, I'll hold my condemnation until after I've spoken to Tarble again," Raven continued, looking at Garfield with a flat look. "We spoke to him once already about this. He didn't defend his actions at all. He didn't justify it. Any of it." Why wouldn't he? Did he really not care about what he did?

Or was it something else?

Maybe he wanted to be judged?

Raven didn't know, but it was clear that she wouldn't get her answer by watching another episode of intergalactic soap operas.

...

So, in Going Native, the purpose of the various shows that were mentioned was for pretty much what this chapter was. The idea was that there would be two or three chapters that more or less run through the events of Going Native - this was for the new readers, and it would quickly compress the Hero side of the reaction to Tarble's past. That way, it wouldn't drag out the reaction of 'Hey, Tarble's life has kinda sucked a little bit.' We could just have a few chapters, then we could move on.

But, as I wrote the chapter, I really didn't like how it felt. It felt incredibly masturbatory and like I was undermining what Tarble did during the war. Because, at the end of the day, Tarble very much is a monster that did monstrous things. Intentions do matter, but actions matter more. It more or less felt like I was turning him into a woobie. So, the plan kinda fell apart.

The next chapter is currently available on my and Subscribe Star, so if you want to read it a week early, all it takes is a single dollar in the tip jar. Or, for five dollars, you can read the chapter after that two weeks before its public release! I hope you enjoyed!