Sorry this chapter took so long. I'm currently ending one of my other stories, and it's taking a bit of my time up. Still, it's over now, so regular updates again!

Chapter Ten

Two days and not a single sighting of Father Time (Jr.). To make matters worse, the situation between the Teen Titans and the Titans was getting tenser. It didn't help that as time went along; the teens began to grow more anxious, not entirely liking what they were seeing of their older selves. Inside, they were all thinking, how can we prevent this?

It wasn't even the big things. Murder? Betrayal? Civil war amongst themselves? Not a big deal. Those were the kinda things adult superheroes dealt with all the time. The Teen Titans could handle that. They could prevent big things like that. It was the small things. The tiny things. The things that were so insidious in nature that you couldn't truly prevent it, because it was so gradual. For example...

Victor holds his fork in his fist. Completely ham-handling it. Cyborg watched his older self shovel food into his mouth, and cocked his head as he watched. He compared his own graceful clutching of the fork, held like a pen or pencil, and the barbaric handling of the tool in his older self's hand. Cyborg couldn't understand how you could so carelessly handle the deliverer of such great bounty! It was mind-boggling.

Robin really had no problems with his own older version. The man was witty, charming, debonair, though admittedly he had a bad fashion sense. Baby blue and black? Now, really, how kitschy...

Beast Boy had a big problem with Changeling. In the future, he appeared to be some kind of shameless flirt, always with a ready smile and joke. Beast Boy liked to think that he wasn't like that. His jokes actually were funny, and he only flirted with...Raven. This, now that he thought of it, was who Changeling primarily flirted with. Not older Raven, who spent much of her time in close conversation with Arsenal, but younger Raven who was looking a lot better now that her shields were slipping back into place, though she was retreating back into her cold shell that she wore so closely. Beast Boy liked to think that he was the only one who'd ever seen past that shell. Changeling liked to think that given the chance, he could convince Raven to let him peak a little, again.

Speaking of Raven...

"Azar was destroyed?" She was asking of her older self, the shock and horror that only slightly marred her features still making it clear that the idea of that shook her to the core. Older Raven took her younger self's hand and held it for comfort. Their home realm, one of the few places where she was comfortable, taken and corrupted by Trigon, and it had wounded her far more than she'd ever realized. In the face of her younger self's despair, Raven realized that she still mourned Azar deeper than she mourned anything, even the death of her mother.

"Yes. Trigon stepped into the realm, and his very presence changed the essence of it. The people tried to stop him, but their meditations had no effect. He slaughtered them."

Raven clutched at older Raven's hand, her eyes wide. "Mother too?"

She nodded. "It was not in vain, though. Using their souls, with their permission of course, we entrapped Trigon. He can never leave again. Not physically, mentally, or even astrally. He is well and good imprisoned."

Beast Boy, only half-listening as he sat beside Raven, picked up on only a bit of the conversation. "You have a mother?"

Raven glared at him. "Yes. What did you expect?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I thought maybe you hatched from an egg or something. How do demons get born?"

Older Raven took time from her immense amusement at the sight of the young couple squabbling to explain. "Demons possess a human male or female and hold the body. Then they engage in relations with another human and a pregnancy occurs. The baby that is born is half-demon."

"Like me," Raven added, easing back onto the couch, her sadness momentarily forgotten. Beast Boy had always had that talent of making her forget her worries and troubles. It wasn't until this moment that she realized how she appreciated it.

"What about full demons?"

"Full demons don't actually get born on Earth. They can manifest, but they aren't actually here. It's all a projection," Arsenal interjected as he hopped over the back of the couch to land next to Raven, his arm automatically sliding around her as he did. He leaned over for a small kiss before leaning back and sprawling himself out. He seemed to take up more space on the damn couch that Cyborg did after an all-you-can-eat Buffet.

"Trigon felt pretty damn physical when we fought him not too long ago," Robin replied as he joined the group near the couches. Starfire was at his side, though she wasn't paying attention as she discussed hair care with the older, much curlier haired Koriand'r.

Arsenal laughed. "Well...it's a pretty damn good manifestation. The vibes on Earth are too good for Trigon to fully come here. At least they are now. Not that it matters anymore. But just for future reference for when y'all go back..."

"Speaking of that," Robin began, "not that it hasn't been fun, but when are we going back?"

"When Father Time appears," Nightwing replied with a smile, taking the seat next to Beast Boy and kicking Arsenal's feet off the table to replace with his own.

"How long will that take?"

Victor answered that one as he casually beat Cyborg at arm-wrestling (possible only through recent upgrades that involved neural pathways laced with artificial musculature). "Not much longer."

"How do you know that?" Starfire asked. The whole room was paying attention to the conversation now, the Teen Titans anxious to get out of the strange situation, and the Titans just anxious as usual. Changeling was aloof, not showing anything.

"He knows that his older self is set to be transferred soon to a more permanent location. He can't afford to wait longer."

Everyone nodded absently, looking around a bit lost. Only two levels, not much to do. The only one who came and went was Barry, off to visit Jinx and bring in groceries and the like. He also reported that the Justice League themselves had come down to monitor the Tower, most likely thanks to Changeling, who hadn't mentioned it so neither did they.

As they sat there, Starfire became aware of a strange light effect permeating the room. Strange glistening strange, almost Aurora Borealis in nature, began at the top of the room, the very top of that oh-so-high ceiling and began to move from wall to wall, disappearing momentarily, before appearing again, faster and faster along that cycle, and at the same time growing lower. With a smile, she pointed. "What's that?"

They all looked up. The Titans jumped to their feet and stared at it. "This is bad," Raven commented.

"Why?" Beast Boy asked, getting to his feet too, using the hand of Raven's that he'd been holding for the last couple of minutes to pull her to her feet as well.

"He's pointed it at us," Arsenal explained. "The Chronon radiation emitter he uses to time travel. He's pointed it directly at us."

"So?" Robin asked, his hand on his batarang holder, just waiting for an excuse to use it.

Arsenal nodded his head at the top of the window. "Look."

The top of the large bay windows, where the light show was currently level, was changing with each pass. At first in sync with the outside, it changed to a red sky, fire falling from it, a sight well remembered from the time when Trigon had tried to take over the world. Then, again, it changed, to a time when all the windows were broken out, well, one of those times considering how often the windows actually got broken. Again, it changed, to a time when there had been no windows. It started over, at the beginning, throwing different times in, faster and faster. As the lights, now realized to be reflections of the time line rippling, got lower, both Ravens came together and grasped hands, using their soul-self to pull all the people in the room close to them, and at the same time forming a force field around them, one strong enough to hold off the ripples. It wouldn't last, but it might just long enough for them to think of something to do.

They stood there frozen and unable to really think as the lights finally reached them, slamming against the shield with enough force to make the younger Raven stumble, only to have Changeling catch her. Beast Boy bared his teeth and growled, replacing Changeling at her back holding her up. If he could help it, he'd keep that player older self of himself away from young Raven, who was entirely too innocent and naïve to deal with the smooth sexiness that was himself.

Now, the entire Tower began to change. Broken down and decrepit (future), gleaming and empty of all furniture (before they'd even moved in), or not there at all. It was strange to be standing in the middle of the bay, or so they thought until even the island beneath them disappeared and they were standing in the middle of a large empty ocean, with not even any land in sight (the way, way, way long ago). Faster and faster the lights moved, until slowly, they started passing through time when they'd actually been on island. There was the time when Slade had broken into the Tower with Terra's help. Again, there was the time Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo had broken in. A time when there'd been an island but no Tower. A time when the Tower had been there, but was being broken in half by some massive Tidal Wave. In the flashes, past and future Titans began to appear. Terra for a second, then what appeared to be Aquagirl in another. Kid Flash appeared, then a teenage Arsenal, in his Speedy uniform. Some chick with only one eye was playing with a sword, then Wonder Girl appeared, but she appeared to be blonde. Then Kid Flash again. And again. And again.

Even as older Raven narrowed her eyes as she studied the Kid Flash that kept appearing, he stepped from those light and vibrated his way through the shield. The other stared in astonishment at the dead Titan, and only sheer force of will kept the shield going as both Ravens took a small step back from the speedster.

Wally, as a matter of course, took the sight of the group with a smile and a laugh. "Why do I get the feeling that I've missed something?"