Author's Note: Finally updated! Only two more until this is done. Read and Review!
Raven woke up the next morning to the feeling of her leotard sticking to her back and an awful taste in her mouth from not brushing her teeth last night. Taking a few moments to wake up, and brush the sleep from her eyes, Raven noticed that her team was sleeping much closer than they were when they first went to sleep. Beast Boy had fallen asleep between her and Cyborg; Robin was pressed against her back with Starfire in front of him. Shifting slowly, to avoid waking her teammates, she tried to slip out of the pile without success.
As she tried to sit up, Robin squirmed, and rolled over to take a fistful of her cape in his hand. She stood still for a moment, but he didn't let go, and Raven reached up to unclasp her cloak. Just as she did that, Cyborg stretched, his loud morning yawn sounding three times louder in the peaceful quiet than usual.
"Well, good morning sunshine," Cyborg said as she saw she was awake. He gave her a look when he saw what she was doing to her cape.
"Something wrong?"
"Robin has my cloak in his hand. I would rather not be strangled when he turns over again."
Cyborg laughed, knowing full well how Robin tossed and turned in his sleep. He watched as Raven finally got free from the pile and moved into the kitchen. Cyborg got up, making sure both boys were covered, and followed her.
"So, what's the plan for today?" Cyborg asked as he filled Raven's tea kettle. Raven paused as she looked at her tea bag. She reached into the cabinet for her mug.
"Research, I suppose. Keeping them safe. There isn't much else we can do until we find a solution." Raven said to her friend.
Cyborg frowned. "I feel like there is more we could be doing. But after yesterday, I don't think we could just walk down the street with them." The android tapped his fingers against the counter. "We don't even know who took them in the first place. If Red-X hadn't found them…" Cyborg trailed off.
Raven set her mug down harder then she intended. "We would have found them. With or without Red-X. And I still don't know how I feel about that."
Cyborg looked at the clock and then back at Raven.
"I think we should call in some help," Cyborg murmured. Raven looked up sharply.
"No, we can't have anyone else knowing about this," Raven shot down. Cyborg rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Raven, I don't want to resort to that. But we need help, whether it's for finding out how to fix this or just helping us keep them safe in general. Yesterday just showed how bad things could go if we don't have enough help." Cyborg explained.
Raven stared hard at the empty mug in front of her. When the kettle started to whistle, she took it and poured the hot water in. The steam rose up.
"Why do we have to bring other people in?" Raven asked. The conflicting thoughts were plain on her face. Cyborg moved over to give her a hug.
"We need all the help we can get, Raven. But you know I wouldn't suggest people that wouldn't do their damn best to help us. And you know that, and Star does too. We're going to fix this Raven." Cyborg reassured her.
Raven moved away after a moment and stirred her tea.
"I think I need to mediate for a while. I don't want to make something break with them here…I don't want to scare them," Raven said. Cyborg went to tell her she didn't need to worry about scaring them, that they trusted her completely, but the empath took her mug and fled the room.
Cyborg knew better then to chase after her.
Sighing heavily, and electing to wait an hour or so before trying to bring Raven back inside, Cyborg went about making himself breakfast. He checked in quickly on the other three, which were still heavily asleep, and thought about which titans could be trusted with this situation.
The obvious choice was Titans East, them being the closest to them. He could explain the situation to Bumblebee and ask her if she could spare one of her teammates for the foreseeable future. Aqualad was the first choice, but that would mean that Speedy would want to tag along. Kid Flash and Jinx had been hanging close to Copper City the past few weeks, so it wouldn't be too hard to ask them to help out.
He tried to relax as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He normally didn't drink it, Raven and Robin were the heavy caffeine drinkers in the tower, but he felt he would need it today. He was halfway through his second waffle when the rest of the group stirred.
Starfire walked in, her hair in a wonderful bedhead fashion. Robin was still heavy with sleep, but still managed to drag an aware Beast Boy by the hand.
"Well, 'bout time you guys woke up," Cyborg teased. Robin frowned but perked up when he saw what the android was drinking.
"Coffee!" Robin exclaimed and tried to take it. Cyborg grabbed it and held it out of his reach.
"None for you, man. I don't need you being all hyper and running around today," Cyborg said. Robin pouted and nosily sat down in the chair across from him. Beast Boy was quiet but he offered a small smile to Cyborg.
"Where's Raven?" Beast Boy asked. Cyborg inwardly sighed.
"She's mediating right now, bud, but she'll be down soon, okay?" Cyborg told him. Beast Boy nodded. Starfire placed two glasses of orange juice in front of the boys then settled on a banana for herself.
"Ok, so how are you two feeling today?" Cyborg asked. Robin shrugged.
"Fine," He said. Cyborg looked at Beast Boy.
"Me too," He answered.
"No aches, you aren't feeling too warm, nothing that hurts?" Cyborg pressed. Both boys denied feeling sick, but it was clear that Starfire and he would be keeping a close eye on them. Soon, both boys had a small waffle (one of Cyborg's normal ones cut in half), and another glass of juice. Starfire had settled for a waffle, and drizzled some mustard on it.
Seeing how everyone was eating, and Starfire seemed awake enough now, Cyborg brought up the matter of business that had been plaguing him since this morning.
"So, I was thinking of putting a call through to Titans East," Cyborg said. Starfire frowned lightly.
"Have they been calling?" She asked. Cyborg took another sip of his now cold coffee.
"No, but I think it might be worth wide to get some outside help till this matter is fixed," Cyborg explained.
"Did we do something?" Beast Boy asked. Robin looked up sharply.
"We didn't break anything, promise!" Robin exclaimed. Cyborg moved to calm them down.
"No, you guys didn't do anything wrong," Cyborg soothed. An idea popped into his head. "Actually, are you guys done eating?"
X
Raven wasn't mediating. In fact, she hadn't done any mediating since she came to roof. Her mind with a mix of thoughts, each one more and more worrying. She was terrifying that she wouldn't find something to reverse the spell, terrified that some other villain would come back for her friends, and more recently terrified that Cyborg's idea wouldn't work.
She would never forgive him if something were to happen.
As soon as she thought that, Raven felt horrible. Cyborg would never do anything to endanger the two boys, and to think that he ever would made her sick with guilt. Raven bit her lip to reign in her emotions. She couldn't have her powers getting out of her control.
If it had been a normal day, Robin would be in the gym now. Beast Boy would probably be flying, or swimming, or bugging her. What she wouldn't give for that now. What she wouldn't give for anything normal right now, to reverse yesterday, to reverse it all. The tablet was still hidden, locked up in her room, waiting for all its secrets to be unlocked.
And Raven would unlock them all.
"Raven!"
A burst of green came flying at her and wrapped his arms around her legs. Raven stood still for a moment before reaching down to stroke his hair. Beast Boy leaned up to peer at her.
"Is this ok?" He asked. Raven tried to make her face look kind; she had never encountered Beast Boy so unsure of himself.
"This is fine," Raven assured him. Cyborg was leaning near the door, and Starfire was making sure that Robin didn't venture too far near the edge of the roof. Taking Beast Boy's hand, Raven walked over to Cyborg.
"So, I explained it to Starfire," Cyborg began. "She thinks it might be a good idea."
Raven frowned then it dawned on her. Bending down, Raven sat on the ground and gestured for Beast Boy to sit next to her. Feeling left out, Cyborg sat as well.
"Beast Boy, remember when we said that you and Robin were like us?" Raven reminded him. Beast Boy nodded and looked between them. "Well, there is another team like us in Steel City. Cyborg thinks we should ask them for help until we can get you and Robin back to normal. What do you think?"
For a moment Beast Boy didn't answer. Cyborg smiled encouragingly at him, wondering why he didn't think of asking the two boys.
"If they want to help then that's ok," Beast Boy answered. Raven smiled at him and got up. Taking his hand again, Raven walked over to Starfire. The girl was explaining to Robin that just because he was five ("Five and a half!"), he couldn't climb the pole supporting the volleyball net.
"But I won't fall!" Robin argued and stamped his foot. Starfire frowned.
"Whether you think you would fall or not isn't the problem. You aren't allowed to climb anything," Starfire told him firmly.
"Gar!" Robin exclaimed when he saw them coming over. "Come climb with me!"
Starfire looked at them with slight exasperation.
"Ok, little monkey, time out for a moment. We got to talk to you," Cyborg said.
Cyborg picked up Robin and placed him on the bench near the net. Robin frowned at being treated like a baby, as he called it.
"I don't need to be picked up," Robin sassed. Cyborg rolled his eyes.
"We can debate that later, Rob, right now I need to ask you a few questions," Cyborg replied. Robin swung his legs, coming close to hitting Cyborg a few times. He settled down once Raven sat down, and placed Beast Boy near him.
"Ok, me, Raven, and Starfire think that we should call a few friends of ours, yes they're your friends too Robin, to help us until we can fix the spell that was cast on you guys. We asked Beast Boy, and he thinks we should ask them, but only if they want to help. Now we're asking you," Cyborg explained patiently.
Robin pondered for a moment before bursting out in questions.
"Are they heroes like us?"
"Ya, just like us."
"But they don't know about yesterday?"
"Not until we tell them."
"How many would come to help?"
"I'm not sure, one maybe two."
"Good, I don't need another babysitter."
"They wouldn't be a babysitter, Robin. They would help us keep you safe until we can figure out a way to fix this."
"So they would be a babysitter."
Cyborg huffed and decided to repeat the original question.
"Robin, would you be ok with us calling them and asking for help? Would you be ok with them being here in the tower?" Cyborg asked.
Robin sighed and inched down. "Sure, I guess. Just as long as they aren't mean. 'Cus they can't be mean, not to me, not to you, and not to Gar. Especially not to Gar. Got it?" Robin issued.
Cyborg smiled, standing up and ruffling both boy's hair.
"I think we can manage that."
X
Aqualad was relaxing on the couch, watching Speedy argue with Menos about something that happened this morning, when the call came through. Looking up from her paper, Bumblebee rolled over her chair to the communication unit to answer the call. Cyborg's face soon appeared on the screen.
"Hey there, Sparky," Bumblebee said. Cyborg laughed then his face turned serious. That was never a good sign. That type of serious face was usually worn by Robin.
"So, I was wondering if one or two of you could come to Jump for a little while?" Cyborg asked. Speedy frowned from his new spot of the counter in front of the screen.
"Is it that boring in Jump right now?" Speedy asked as he buffed out a smudge on his bow. Cyborg chuckled nervously.
"Not exactly," He replied. That had Aqualad frowning.
"Is something wrong?" He asked. Cyborg's face became pinched.
"Ok, first, just bear with me while I explain," Cyborg began. "We got a call to go stop a robbery. Mumbo was there, with this tablet thing, and something…happened. To summarize...the tablet was magical, and now Robin and Beast Boy…are…kids," He finished.
There was silence in the room for a few moments.
"This is a prank," Speedy said. "This has to be some type of joke."
"You're not serious," Bumblebee said.
"Kids? Like actual kids?" Aqualad asked. Beside him, the twins began to rapidly speak, their hands flailing around.
"Ya, actual kids. They look like their five years old," Cyborg said. Bumblebee swore.
"I'm guessing Raven is already trying to find a reverse spell?"
Cyborg nodded. "Ya, but we already had an incident with the resident criminals."
"What happened?" Speedy asked with a hard tone. His hand clenched when he heard that.
"Someone took them, we don't know who yet, but Red-X was the one who found them and told us where they were. After that we think it might be best to have a few more hands around in case something like that happens again."
"Safety in numbers," Aqualad murmured. "I wouldn't mind helping out." He turned to his leader.
Bumblebee leaned back. "There hasn't been much activity. If anything happens we can call Kid Flash and Jinx, they crashed here last night. I'll send Aqualad and Speedy."
"Why do I have to go?" He whined. Bumblebee looked at him.
"You get unlimited blackmail access to a kid version of Robin," Bumblebee teased. Speedy sighed and leaned into the screen.
"When do you want us there?"
Cyborg told them to come tomorrow afternoon and soon after the line was cut. The five of them sat in silence.
"Kids, they're freaking kids," Speedy mumbled and he rubbed his face.
"Hey, I would rather let them have all the weirdness then us. I can't imagine any of you running around here as kids."
As an argument broke out between the two, Aqualad walked to his room to start packing his bag.
Tomorrow was bound to be interesting.
