A/N: I was trying to wait until my document manager was repaired, but since it hasn't happened yet, I guess I'll go ahead and give y'all your update, yes?

Chapter Five

Raven smiled at the shocked faces of the teens, and tried not to laugh. Yes, laugh. Years of meditations and rigorous training had allowed her the amount of control over her powers that now she could indulge in the occasional emotion, though most often it was the negative ones that she tended to.

"Our little prison isn't why we've called you here," Raven said, and pointed to the armada out the window. "Those, we can handle. However, we do have a problem we can't handle."

Robin stood front and center to the Teen Titans and nodded. "Then get on with it and tell us what."

Raven nodded, and walked over to a large monitor in the wall, and with a couple of taps had a villain profile coming up. The large picture drew everyone's attention first. It was a male, seemingly thirty years old, but with bright white hair. He was grinning, but not with the usual "crazy" zeal. He could have been any human walking around on the street, with nothing to tell you that he had the highest IQ on Earth, and no quibbles about how he used it.

"He calls himself Father Time. Using a radical invention of his, he used chronin radiation to time travel. This, however, is the first time chronin radiation has ever been used this way. Usually, you only encounter chronin when there's been a rip in the timeline. It's considered a product of time travel, not a method, and for good reason. Father Time took his first trip back to time a month ago, since then Victor," nod to adult Cyborg behind her, "has detected several event in the timeline. So far, one casualty.

"We were able to track down and give over Father Time to justice about two weeks ago, but we've discovered a new problem."

The Teen Titans waited for Raven to continue, but she didn't, and indeed seemed at a loss for words. Finally, she started to speak again. "Time isn't linear, which is something I'm sure you know. What most people do not know is that time isn't circular either." Raven summoned her soul self and used it to form a sphere, completely translucent but filled with equidistant black dots. They didn't move, and were all completely stationary. "Each moment in time forms one of these dots. Most modes of time travel use the "fastest route", which is a straight line," her soul self formed a line from one dot to another, "and that's how the user travels. However, with some study, we've formed a hypothesis about how the chronin radiation is working." The line disappeared, and one of the small dots burned a bright red. "Instead of causing a rip or event in time, the radiation is causing lashes, in a way." Suddenly, a long curving line came out of the red dot, slicing through several dots and causing them to turn bright red for a moment, but it continued to move, slashing wildly about. Finally, it started to dissipate, but now there were two bright red dots. "The point in time that is hit most by these lashes, is where Father Time traveled, but there was side effect, that only came to our attention just last week." Inside the sphere, instead of a 'lash' forming, a small wave of red energy did, and it washed over many of the dots in the sphere, once again only one other turning red, or at least at first. Slowly, the wave grew stronger in color, and more dots started to turn.

Raven lowered her hand and the sphere disappeared. "The side effect is that instead of just him traveling to the past or the future, that wave is starting to bring things to the present too."

Starfire cocked her head to the side, leaning around Robin to see (he was standing in front of her, you see, all protective and the like). "Like what?"

"Right now, we've been able to confirm three vases, two houses, and a dog."

Cyborg laughed. "That's it?"

Raven didn't smile. "Let me make clear. Two people died when their car crashed into one of those houses. The street they'd been driving on hadn't been created until only last year, and they didn't see the house."

Cyborg laughed again. "How do you not see a house?"

"It wasn't visible. It's another side effect of the radiation. Things from the past can't be seen in the present." Raven struggled again to explain. "The objects actually are in the past, and for now the radiation is bring shells of what they are, the matter of them, but not the visuals. When the radiation begins to disperse, they do become visible, but until then, no one can see them."

Nightwing stepped up and glared down at the Titans. "The real problem isn't the objects that are coming back, it's the people."

Robin stared up at his future self and had to admit he was sexy. Then, he shook off that little thought and tried to get serious. "Who?"

Raven patted Nightwing on the shoulder and moved him back to the other Titans. "We think one, and we think he was brought here deliberately, however Father Time won't speak to us."

Robin repeated again. "Who?"

"Father Time has brought here his past self. Now that Father Time has been incarcerated, we believe his past self is leaving the machine on to create chaos while he plans to free his adult self."

"Why don't you just go out and catch him like you did Father Time?"

"He's of the past. We can't see him," Raven explained, then smiled broadly. "But you can. He's from a few months ahead of your present. You'll be able to see him, and bring him down."

Robin scratched his chin ponderously. "So you brought us here to do your job? Why not just get help from someone in this time?"

Raven sighed. "As I already explained, we aren't in contact with anyone right now. Even if we were, who would believe us? If what we say isn't true, then no harm, no foul for you. You don't see him, then you go home."

The Teen Titans stared at Raven before sharing a non-verbal little argument mentally. Robin once again turned to speak. "We'll need time to talk this over."

Raven nodded before gesturing to Victor. "Vic will show you to rooms. I'll take...myself...to the infirmary."

Beast Boy glared at her. "How about we take her?"

Raven's face went unreadable and she nodded mutely. Together, with Beast Boy carrying Raven, and adult Raven leading, the trio left the room. The others stared blankly at each other, before Arsenal and Nightwing stood.

Roy smiled. "We should get going. Don't wanna get caught being here, you know?"

Starfire watched as he and the older Robin stood. "You do not stay here?"

Roy laughed. "No. Me and Dickie aren't Titans anymore, at least, not officially. We still come and help when called though."

Nightwing nodded. "That's what makes us real Titans, that we still come."

A voice came out of the darkened hallway, a voice deepened with age, but still recognizable by its considerable mirth never entirely gone. "And that's what makes me no longer a Titan, yes? That I don't ask how high when Cyborg says jump? That I don't drop everything for every battle the Titans think they need help with?" Garfield Logan, Changling, nee Beast Boy, stepped from the shadows, older, wiser, but as green as ever. "Or is it that I refused to be part of your little breaking and entering and murder a couple of months ago? Is that why I'm branded traitor?"

Victor smiled and didn't turn, his sensors having indicated that Changling had entered the Tower a little over five minutes ago, and he hadn't been surprised even then. After all, Gar was the only "Teen Titan" who could enter the Tower (because of his DNA), and was also the only one currently payrolled and lapdog to and by the Justice League, the Titan's judge, jury, and warden.

Nightwing smiled bitterly. "You're a traitor because in times of need, you want to play Doom Patrol instead of helping your friends."

Gar smiled and help up one finger as if to say "ha!". "I believe you mean former friends."