Raven gave it another hour before deciding to wake up the boys. She was loathe too; they were curled up tight together, unaware of the chaos that was about to take place. Before she forgot, she took several pictures on her communicator. If nothing else, at least she could show them this. There was no telling if either boy would remember these past few days. But she was willing to bet that there would a series of questions. No one was forgetting that the flip in personalities had shocked all of them. Raven pushed those thoughts aside for the moment.
She crouched down beside the pile of blankets and worked gently to untangle them. A small, green hand batted her much larger one away when she got too close to his head. Beast Boy still looked half asleep, so Raven plucked him up, and continued to wake up Robin. The boy wonder was not happy about being woken up a second time; Raven dropped him off on the couch while she went to get the kids some food. Beast Boy seemed content to say with her, and she let him fiddle with the clasp of her cloak for a bit.
"Did the others call?" Raven stopped pouring out the drinks and settled for setting the green boy on the counter. "You said they'd call soon." Was he always this quiet? Raven took a moment to collect her thoughts.
"No, they didn't call. And it don't think it's safe to call them until you're back to normal. So we all just have to hope for the best." Raven knew it was a dumb answer, but Beast Boy didn't call her out on it, and she left it alone. Robin shuffled over and leaned against her legs, all wild hair and everything.
"We've been waiting forever!" Robin whined. Without his mask, the blue eyes seemed to try and convince her that she was in the wrong. Raven ruffled his hair and placed Beast Boy on the counter.
"It hasn't been forever, Robin. And I won't risk alerting any criminals that we're here until we know for certain that it's ok." Even as she said it, Raven knew it wasn't a good plan. They were running low on supplies, and it had probably already come to the attention of the criminal population that the titans weren't around. The city was going to be a mess when they got back.
"But how do you know that is isn't ok? Maybe they just lost the number to call you." Robin argued. The little boy was trying his best to puff up his chest and appear bigger than the girl in front of him, but Raven didn't let that move her. She raised an eyebrow, which seemed to have Robin shrink back a bit, before handing both boys some water.
"I don't know if it's ok, and I can't take that chance. And as for losing the number," Raven thought about it for a quick second. "Cyborg made sure we wouldn't lose it."
"How?" Beast Boy asked. Raven watched as Robin got onto one of the chairs, without dropping the cup, and then filled up her own.
"How what?" Raven asked stupidly. It wasn't her fault; she had no caffeine in her system and was dealing with yet another magical mishap.
"How does he know that you wouldn't lose it?"
"He just does, ok? Cyborg's smart like that. He'd make sure we didn't have to worry about losing any numbers." Raven wondered if Beast Boy asked similar questions with the Doom Patrol. He probably asked more.
"Alight, let's try and find something edible to eat. Then, we need to sit down and talk about how I'm going to fix this." As she rummaged through the cabinets, and listened to Robin's and Beast Boy's early morning chatter, she wondered how the others were holding up.
Maybe, since she found a cure, they others would call today. There had to be a reason for them not calling. Shaking her head, she put her communicator back on her belt and pulled out some crackers and an unopened can of peanut butter.
What a terrific breakfast for each of them.
When the sun came up, Star was ready to leave. The plan was to get closer to Jump, survey the tower, and if everything seemed ok, contact Raven. There wasn't any way around it; without the communicators, they didn't have a way to get a hold of the empath. None of them talked. They'd been without food, water, and were covered in dirt from head to toe, so all they wanted was to find their friends. Starfire and Speedy had the front, and Cyborg and Aqualad covered the rear.
"Do you think the tower will be ok?" Aqualad asked. Cyborg squinted for a moment as he moved out from a sharp ray of sunlight.
"If it's not, we can fix it. I'd rather have a mess up tower than have to worry about some sicko getting their hands on the boys." Aqualad frowned.
"You did what you had to do. If Raven stayed with us, who knows what could have happened. They're both defenseless."
"Beast Boy is still green," Cyborg said and continued at Aqualad's confused look. "I think he could still shift, he just hasn't. Either way, both of them are getting low-jacked after all this is done."
They hiked for a couple more hours, until they stopped for a quick break. The outline of Jump was more defined now; a few more hours and they'd been within the outer borders of the city. Cyborg glanced down at his arm. He could call Raven, but he was reluctant to do so. There hadn't been any sign of the group being followed, but the threat was still out there. With no identity of their kidnapper they couldn't prepare well for another attack. Starfire sat down next to them. In the distance a jet plane was coming in to land at the airport.
"I think I should fly ahead." Starfire needed to do something. It had to have been close to two days without contact from Raven. A lot could happen in those two days and Starfire was losing the battle with keeping her fear at bay. "I could observe the tower, and perhaps find another titan. Maybe someone else has seen Raven." Cyborg reached up to brush back some sweat drenched strands of hair.
"You aren't going to let this go, are you?" Cyborg asked as Starfire glared at him. They all wanted their friends back, but there were a lot of threats around them.
"No, I need to find out what happened." Speedy walked over.
"Finding other titans might be a good idea. Raven could have gone to one of the lesser known heroes."
"A lot of them are off the grid, too. So there's less chance of her being detected." Cyborg stood up and winced as his back popped.
"Let's make a list. Once we're inside the city we'll start making calls."
Starfire was itching to go ahead, but she'd agreed to wait until they were inside city lines. Each mile was one step closer to home.
Finally they reached the outer part of the city. There were abandoned buildings, each covered in graffiti, and there didn't appear to be anyone around. Starfire instinctively reached for her communicator, frowning when she remembered it was gone. She turned to Cyborg. The android was frowning, and wiped away some sweat. All of them were covered in grim.
"We'll wait here. Go ahead to the tower, but if something seems off, get out of there. We're stretched too thin as it is." Speedy stopped trying to get his hair out of his face.
"Why doesn't one of us go with her?" The archer asked.
"It would be easier for her to go alone. Plus, none of us can fly, if you haven't noticed. We'd only be slowing her down."
Cyborg pulled her in for a quick hug. "I'm giving you an hour. If you aren't back by then, we'll come looking. Be careful." Starfire said a quick goodbye to the other boys and then took off. She stayed low to the ground, hugging the buildings. It wasn't long before the tower came into view.
For once, in a very long time, seeing her home didn't fill the girl with joy.
At first glance, the tower appeared normal. She checked the scanners and no one had entered after they had been taken. The bay windows were shattered in, so she floated to avoid the glass. She called out to Raven, half-heartedly, before she realized what a foolish idea it was. She tried to find some spare communicators, but she was unsuccessful. She glanced at one of the working clocks; her hour was nearly up. Feeling disheartened, she flew out again, keeping the same path she took before. The city seemed normal; had no one realized that the titans were missing?
She landed in the alley and walked out to find her friends sitting on the concrete. Speedy was leaning against the wall with his eyes shut and Aqualad was tossing a large stone in his hands. Cyborg was standing, arms crossed, but he relaxed the second he saw her.
"The tower is secure, but there was no sign of Raven being there." Starfire reported. Cyborg shrugged and helped Speedy up.
"It was a long shot. Raven wouldn't bring them back to the place we got ambushed." The group started to walk to the tower. They could recharge and rest there.
Two hours later they were back at the tower. The security system was still working; Cyborg checked that while the other three began to shower. Eventually they were all clean, fed, and slightly rested. Cyborg quickly boarded up the windows as Starfire packed them all bags. They had made some calls, but no one had seen Raven.
"I think we should just call her." Cyborg said as he hammered in the last nail. Starfire stopped packing.
"Is that our only option?" Starfire sat down on the couch. Speedy was spread out on the other end.
"We'd get fast results, Starfire." The archer was all of it; the only way to get a direct answer was to call the person they were looking for.
"Alright, so Speedy and I are in agreement." Cyborg counted. Starfire brushed her hair back.
"I wish to hear from our friends." Starfire knew that they were running out of options. Aqualad agreed and Cyborg headed off to find a communicator. He came back a little while later telling them it would be a bit of a wait; he had to generate a new one since the major comm unit was fired. They settled in to wait.
It was dark by the time Cyborg appeared. The communicator didn't have the fanciness of their old communicators, but it worked and that's all the mattered.
"Here we go." Cyborg said as he sat down next to the group. Starfire moved to sit next to him, and the titans east boys waited for the screen to show them what they wanted. At first, all they got was static. Then a sharp pitch whine came out. All of them flinched as Cyborg shut off the device.
"Forgot to check the frequency." Cyborg muttered as he fiddled with the settings and tuned it in to the correct wavelength. "Alright, we're all set now."
Cyborg fired up the device again and this time the call seemed to go through. Starfire waited, anxious for an answer, and she began to file down her nail with her teeth. Cyborg tapped his foot, and Aqualad and Speedy watched the other two.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the call picked up.
"Hello? Raven?" Starfire cried as she watched the screen. For a moment, they didn't get a clear picture. But soon the screen cleared and their purple haired friend was staring back at them.
"Hey, Starfire."