The other four Titans fell silent as Spock's tricorder emitted its signature high end pitch.
Cyborg was transfixed with the technology and was sorely tempted to look over Spock's shoulder as he scanned the Tamaranian princess, but knew better than to try. He instead focused on Starfire instead, understanding that outcome could have world shattering results on her.
Beast Boy frowned. His animal instincts told him that this wasn't a good idea. He turned and glanced at his girlfriend.
Raven had no expression at all on her face, which was a blank canvas. Whatever she was thinking or feeling, she wasn't sharing it, not even her lover could read here.
Robin had his arms behind his back, his index finger nervously tapping on his other hand. This was a perilous moment. Even though they all knew that a negative result didn't mean that she wasn't an ancestor, he knew that she wouldn't handle that result well at all. It would thrust all sorts of doubts and worries into her mind. And he was perhaps the culprit behind that.
Their adventure in Tokyo had been almost three years ago. They of course had remained "the boyfriend and the girlfriend" since then, but he had also dragged his feet into moving forward with their relationship. And at first that worked fine, she had been, at least for a while, content with the status quo. It also helped that Raven and Beast Boy began to date, about a year after the Tokyo adventure; which captivated Star's attention and distracted her from her own relationship with the boy blunder.
What threw a fly in the ointment for them was when the Chromatically Challenged Couple moved their relationship to the next level. Sure, they were discrete about it, but it was hard to keep that fact that they began to sleep in the same bed a secret. That was when the he princess began to badger her anal retentive boyfriend about "physical intimacy", and the boy wonder resisted for over a year, until just a few months ago he finally succumbed to her incessant requests.
He found their new arrangement satisfying. They kept separate rooms for sleeping, and had their sensual rendezvous in her room. She had just begun a few weeks ago to tell him that she wanted to share a room with him.
Robin understood why she was so insistent. He wasn't opposed to the idea, he just wasn't in a rush, and for good reason. Once they moved in together she would begin to talk about marriage. He wasn't opposed to that either, the truth being that he couldn't see himself with any one else, not even Babs. But marriage was a big step, one that he preferred to defer for as long as possible. And it didn't help that Star and Cy were speculating that BB and Raven were going to announce their intention to tie the knot at the tender age of 20. Robin knew he would be able to hold her off for only so long.
The tricorder's whine ceased and Robin gulped. It occurred to him that regardless of the results that his life was about to become more "interesting."
Spock turned a few knobs on his tricorder before nodding thoughtfully as he put it down. He made eye contact with Starfire.
"I'm afraid the result is negative." He announced in a dispassionate voice.
Raven quietly stepped beside Robin and whispered to him. "Damage control time, bird boy."
"What am I supposed to do?" He replied in a clueless tone.
"You know what you have to do." She whispered back in her monotone.
Robin sighed and looked at Starfire. She was staring at the floor, looking utterly devastated. Tears were dripping down her face and her jaw slightly trembled.
"Star? You heard what Mr. Spock said, a negative result doesn't mean you aren't an ancestor."
Robin looked back at Raven, who responded with a glare. He was going to have to do better than that, a lot better. Starfire crossed her arms, as if cradling herself. The last time she looked devastated like that was when they were lost on the world with the monster with the hypersonic scream. He suddenly felt an elbow in his side and saw it was Raven, whose glare had intensified.
"What are you waiting for?" She growled at him.
Starfire cleared her throat and spoke. "Perhaps Mr. Spock should check the Batgirl's DNA for a match?" She said in a heartbroken tone.
"That won't be necessary." Raven interrupted before giving Robin a look that was worthy of her father. "Isn't that right, Robin?"
Using her powers, she shoved Grayson towards Starfire. He tripped and Star caught him in her arms. He looked up with a worried look on his face.
"Hi?"
"Greetings." She replied in a dejected tone.
Dick stood up on his feet. He took her hand and squeezed it.
"Star … could we talk somewhere … in private?"
Still looking heartbroken she nodded her head. Holding her hand he led her out of the guest bedroom, the door swishing shut behind them. Beast Boy scratched his head before turning to Raven.
"What's he gonna tell her?"
"What do you think?" She replied with a smirk.
"I dunno, maybe that he loves her or something?"
Raven slowly shook her head. Boys could be clueless.
"Guess again."
He gave her an incredulous look.
"No way! I mean, c'mon they're only 21, there's no freaking way that ..."
His reply was interrupted by the sound of Starfire shrieking happily in the hallway. He looked dumbfounded as he stared at Raven, whose expression silently said "told you".
The door slid open. Starfire was sporting the biggest grin that had ever seen on her. She was carrying a very embarrassed and blushing boy wonder in her arms, bridal style. She flitted in to the room, doing an aerial pirouette as she shouted the same word over and over.
"Bumpgorfs! We will have bumgorfs!"
As quickly as she zoomed in, she zoomed back out, and was gone, along with Robin. Spock raised one of his eyebrows.
"I am not familiar with that word."
"It means babies, in Tamaranian." Raven clarified.
Spock nodded. "I see, so to pacify her doubts of them ever procreating, Robin has agreed to sire a child with her."
"It's more than that … he proposed marriage to her."
Spock tapped his fingertips together. "She does understand that even if she does procreate with Grandfather Richard, it does not mean that she is my ancestor. It is entirely possible that my ancestral grandmother is this "Batgirl" person she was referring to."
Raven smirked. "Trust me, she's your ancestral grandmother."
Spock shook his head. "Forgive me for pointing this out, Miss Raven, but that assertion cannot be proven and is thus illogical."
Raven continued to smile. "Mr. Spock, logic has nothing to do with it."
-(-)-
The next morning …
Raven was on the roof, levitating in the lotus position when she heard the roof's access door open. Without turning to look she welcomed her visitor.
"Good morning, Mr. Spock."
"Good morning, Miss Raven. Mr. Beast Boy told that I could find you here. I hope I am not interrupting, but I wished to discuss a few things with you before I begin working on repairing the Galileo."
Raven rotated so that she faced him, then lowered her feet to the ground.
"You are not interrupting. I was completing my morning meditations.
"Mr. Beast Boy …"
"Please don't call him that, it'll go to his head … just call him Garfield."
Spock nodded. "As you wish .. as I was saying, Mr. Garfield said that you were up here meditating. I also meditate, to help keep my emotions under control."
"I meditate for the same reason."
"Interesting, given that we are both half human."
She shook her head. "I don't meditate because I'm half human. I meditate because my powers, which are not human in nature, are closely tied to my emotions."
"You mean your abilities."
She nodded. "If you would like to call them that, it works for me."
"Superhuman abilities tied to emotions. How fascinating. Forgive me for prying, but your non human half, I am very curious to what it is. You mention Azarathian the other day. Would you describe that for me?"
Raven debated what to tell the alien. After a brief moment she replied.
"My father is a demon."
Spock arched an eyebrow.
"A demon? Demons are not real, they are myths, the product of primitive superstition."
"You wouldn't say that if you ever met my father."
"I would welcome the opportunity to meet him."
"No … you wouldn't. My father is the incarnation of pure evil."
Spock gave her what she thought was a condescending look.
"Miss Raven, during my time on the Enterprise we encountered alien races with extraordinary abilities, abilities that primitive peoples would have attributed to gods or demons. We even met one who claimed to be the Roman god Apollo. We met other races who were so far advanced that they were able to stop an intergalactic war with just the power of their thoughts, they called themselves the Organians. But let me reassure you that there are no gods nor any demons."
Raven levitated. "I seem to recall that you couldn't explain how I levitate."
"That I cannot explain it does not prove that your ability to levitate is supernatural, nor comes from demons."
She frowned as she slowly shook her head. "Why did I know you were going to say that?"
"Because it is the logical answer."
Raven was beginning to roll her eyes when the crime alert went off and her communicator began to trill. She opened it and saw Robin's face on the screen.
"Titans! It's Brother Blood! He's robbing a shipment of Xenothium from WayneTech. We'll meet there and proceed. Titans Go!"
Raven snapped her communicator shut. "Would you like to come and observe us in action?"
"I would, but unlike you I cannot fly and have no means of transportation." He replied.
She raised her arms and a black disk appeared.
"No problem." She said as she stepped onto her 'air taxi'. "All aboard."
Spock once again arched an eyebrow as he stepped onto the black disk. Raven gestured and the took off. Spock reached for his tricorder.
"Fascinating."
-(-)-
Spock's tricorder was running at full speed as they flew over the bay, then over downtown Jump until they reached the WayneTech campus in a leafy suburb. Spock took mental notes as they flew. Beast Boy had joined them on the disk and was talking with his mate about the latest Mega Monkeys. Spoke made a mental note to investigate the meaning of that term as he continued to scan. The results were disturbing:
Copious amounts of contaminants in the bay.
A cocktail of pollutants in the atmosphere: carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and miscellaneous dirt particles, collectively know as smog.
And, as expected, Raven's flying disk did not register on the tricorder, according to which they were standing on thin air and nothing else.
As they approached their destinations his tricorder picked up Xenothium. The highly unstable compound was banned in the Federation, as its only use was in making weapons of mass destruction. Whoever this 'Brother Blood' was, it was logical to assume that he was a criminal and that he must not be allowed to possess the deadly substance. As Raven's disk quickly descended the green one pointed at one of the buildings, from which a steady flow of people, dressed in white labcoats. calmly walked out, each one carrying a canister, which they handed over to man who was surrounded by a large number of androids. Fine tuning his tricorder, Spock determined that the people delivering the canisters were in some sort of mental trance and that the stranger was the focus of the mind control he was witnessing. Raven's disk landed and disappeared.
"Dude, we'll handle Blood, you just stay over here with your tri-thingy."
"Tricorder, and yes, I agreed to come only as an observer." Spock still had his phaser tucked away.
Robin gathered his team around.
"We take out his droids first, then recover the Xenothium."
"Dude, what if Blood escapes?"
"That's the price we'll have to pay to recover the Xenothium. Titan's Go!"
Spock watched dispassionately while taking more readings with his tricorder. The androids, while primitive by Federation standards, were both effective and very numerous. This didn't seem to be a problem for the Titans, who demolished them with little effort. He then realized that he lost track of Brother Blood and searched for him. To Spock's surprise, the mysterious man was suddenly just yards away. Blood's eyes glowed red as he approached Spock, who instinctively reached for his phaser, but stopped himself when he saw that Blood was unarmed.
"Well, well, what have we here? I think we have an alien, a visitor from the stars. You wouldn't happen to be a friend of the Teen Titans, would you? Regardless, I would just love to get to know you better!"
The red glow in Blood's eyes intensified and Spock felt a presence trying to invade his mind. Using his kolinahr training Spock was able to, though just barely, repel the invader. He had to admit that he was impressed, as he had never met a human with such mental discipline or power. Blood stopped approaching him, looking both surprised and pleased.
"I am very impressed. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Brother Blood, I run the H.I.V.E. Academy. And who might you be? You don't look like a Teen nor a Titan."
Blood was dressed in his white cassock. The man exuded human arrogance, Spock observed, though in his case it might be deserved.
"My name is Spock."
"How very cryptic. What brings you to Jump City, Spock?"
"I am an observer."
"Interesting … how about I observe you?" Blood's eyes resumed glowing and Spock felt another mental attack. This one was stronger than the previous one, and it took the Vulcan everything he had to keep Blood out of his mind. After what felt like a brief eternity Blood relented.
"You are an interesting, specimen, Spock. Where did you say you were from?"
Spock and Blood were now face to face.
"I did not say … excuse me … there appears to be a large, hairy, multi-legged creature on your shoulder." Spock replied as he pointed to Blood's shoulder. Before Blood could look, Spock applied a nerve pinch on Blood's shoulder and the mentalist collapsed. As he lost consciousness, his remaining robots deactivated and the WayneTech employees under his mind control were freed.
Robin noticed what happened and quickly arrived at the scene, handcuffing the still unconscious super villain as the rest of his team converged around the captured mentalist and began to celebrate their victory.
"Well done, Mr. Spock. You'll have to teach me that move."
Spock was about to reply that the pinch was not "a move", but desisted in correcting his ancestor. Humans had a penchant for being inaccurate with their words, something he learned during his time on the Enterprise. He would have to cope with it, as he always did when around humans.
"I will teach you