A/N: I only update this quickly over the weekend, I assure you. Yeah. Good ol' Cyborg saved the ending of this chapter, haha. Once again, I'm not going to press for reviews, but if anyone has any stupid little moments they'd like added between Gwen and Gar, Gwen and Rae, or amongst the Titan kids as a whole, put it in a review.
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. I do, however, own the plot, Gwendolyn Logan, Doom, Damon and Liam Stone, and Autumn and Tristan Grayson.
The hallway seemed darker than usual as the door to the roof swung shut behind them. Rather than squirming out of his grasp, Gwendolyn edged closer to him, tightening her grip on his arm as her heart began to pound frantically within her chest. They could hear the soft rumble of voices floating up to them from the floor below and Gwendolyn squeezed her eyes shut, shaking herself as if to regain her composure. When she reopened them, the only beacon of light she could see was the soft, silvery white glow emitting from Doom's eyes. For once, seeing as he was not using it to sneak up on her in the wee hours of the morning before the sun kissed the horizon, she was grateful for his night vision.
"God, my wings hurt," Liam complained suddenly, breaking the tense silence. Doom was half-leading and half-carrying Gwendolyn, who was picking her steps rather carefully as she fought to keep firm footing in such a shadowy place. Liam was just behind Gwendolyn, rolling his shoulders with a miserable expression on his face.
"Dude, so do mine, but don't you dare," Doom warned, shooting a glare over his shoulder. "This is a tiny space. There's no room for your ten-foot wingspan so don't even try it."
"You don't know what it's like to have to keep these things folded against your back all the time!" Liam groaned, his large black wings twitching slightly. "Yours just disappear when you shift, you know."
"Dude, shut up. I said no. No means no, now keep them folded and stop your compl--" With a muffled whump, Liam had lost control of his wings and they had unfurled behind him, one striking Doom across the face and one swatting Gwendolyn against the opposite wall.
"Liam, if you don't get your wing off of me this instant, I will personally clip your wings and toss you out of the window like a horseshoe," Gwendolyn growled, pressing against the mass of black feathers. A muffled sound of agreement came from somewhere in front of her, and she guessed that it was Doom trapped beneath the feathery canopy.
"Sorry!" Liam said quickly, struggling to tuck his wings back in. "That happens sometimes, I haven't quite got control of them yet. It's tough, you know!" Using his hands, he began to wrestle with the wing that had Gwendolyn pinned and she slipped through the tiny gap, thankful for her lack of height.
Another muffled sound from Doom's corner and Gwendolyn reckoned that Liam had not yet been successful in freeing him. "Sweet Jesus and the baby orphans," Liam mumbled, struggling to turn to the side in order to free Doom and also give his wings more room. His new change of position caught Gwendolyn off guard and she once again found herself against the wall.
"Ow, Liam!" she gasped, held quite a few inches off of the floor. "Put. Them. Back!"
Before Liam could say a word, a door in front of them was thrown open and a light switched on. Blinking in the sudden illumination, Gwendolyn peered around the feathers to see Cyborg, standing in the doorway, a broad grin spreading across his face. "Heh… Hey, Dad," Liam said sheepishly, wings outstretched.
Cyborg immediately began to roar with unsuppressed laughter. Damon, poking his head round the corner to see exactly what his father was laughing at, spotted his brother and grinned. "Nice, Liam. Nice." He then caught sight of Gwendolyn, kicking and growling as she fought to free herself and then Doom, whose head still was not visible due to the mass of feathers. "Doom!" Damon exclaimed, his smooth, coffee face lighting up playfully. "Gwen didn't kill you!"
Doom's head suddenly appeared over the top of Liam's wing and he grinned, giving Damon a thumbs up, mouth full of feathers. This caused Cyborg to laugh even harder and Gwendolyn aimed a swift kick at Doom, ultimately freeing herself and landing on her behind in the dark hallway.
She felt herself being lifted into the air by the back of her cloak and she screeched, beginning to wriggle and squirm until she saw the green arm that was holding her up. Her father held her above the ground, grinning at her mischievously, emerald eyes alight. "Hey, sweetheart," he greeted affectionately, still not putting her down.
"Garfield, put her down." Gwendolyn stiffened at the voice, slowly lifting her eyes to the doorway. Cyborg had been unable to hold himself up much longer from the force of his chuckles and had moved himself over to the couch in order not to collapse on the floor. In his place stood Raven, a bemused smile on her face, left foot held gingerly up off of the floor, watching the ordeal.
Garfield released his daughter, chuckling as his daughter shot him a dark look. Gwendolyn purposely refused to meet her mother's gaze and instead rushed over to help Doom get out from beneath Liam's wing. Raven sighed and pushed away from the door but had barely made it three steps when Garfield was at her side with his arm around her waist. "Don't want you to strain that ankle," he said as thought it were obvious.
Raven simply blinked before arching a brow and saying, "Gar, darling… I can fly."
From over by the couch, Jinx shot her an exasperated look as Cyborg started laughing all over again. "Did you have to?" she nearly whined, watching as her husband lost himself in his amusement once again. "He was just calming down!"
"Dad's scaring me," Liam muttered to Damon, who simply nodded fervently. Even Starfire was beginning to find so much laughter a bit frightening. Her children, Autumn and Tristan, peered around her worriedly, struggling to discern if it was safe or not.
Doom had successfully rid his mouth of the feathers and replaced his arm back around Gwendolyn's shoulders. They were both beginning to grin at the scene, at the slightly worried looks of the Stone boys, at the giggles that were beginning to take Garfield into their grasp, and at the downright bewildered expression on Starfire's face. The only one who seemed unamused was Nightwing, who had now caught their attention. Gwendolyn appeared to shrink in size as she pressed herself against Doom's side, her hands going for her hood.
Garfield reached out and stopped his daughter from hiding her face, offering her an encouraging smile. Cyborg's howls had now become hiccoughs, for he couldn't remember any longer what had been so hilarious.
Gwendolyn suddenly remembered why she was so afraid to come back inside.
"After the events earlier today," Nightwing said quietly, addressing the whole room. "I think it would be best if the children no longer came to watch us when we are called out to handle the assorted varieties of trouble that we face."
There was silence at this as none of the teenagers dared utter a protest. The only sound was that of Damon's energy crackling slightly, as it always did. Nightwing now turned to face Liam who clenched his jaw obstinately. Jinx hissed a warning, though whether it was to Liam to not disrespect Nightwing or to Nightwing to not shout at her son, none were certain.
"It was irresponsible of you to bring the others down near the fight. Be grateful that no one was hurt." Liam's hazel eyes flickered at the thought, but he otherwise remained composed. "Think of the danger you all could have been in. Damon can't control his powers. So far, all you have is your flight. And Gwendolyn! Gwendolyn, as the most vulnerable of all of us could have--"
"Nightwing," Raven interjected quietly, though there was an air of admonition in her tone. "Their instincts saved--"
Nightwing held up a hand and turned to his own children. Autumn's eyes, exactly her mother's, blazed with determination. Tristan chose to stare at his own shoes. "You, of all children, should know the danger of such actions. Autumn, you know your powers tend to short out. What would have happened if they had shorted out mid-flight?"
"We're not children, Dad," Autumn responded quietly. "Gwen's seventeen, and the youngest is Damon, who's fifteen. Weren't you the same age when you started fighting?"
"Our time was different. We were more prepared. We had no choice. No parents to protect us."
Autumn opened her mouth to retaliate, but Nightwing had moved on and was now facing Gwendolyn. "Gwen, I know you were the brain behind this. I want to know where the harebrained idea to jump in came from. Of all of them, you, the one without the means of defense… I can only hope that when and if you receive your powers--"
"Nightwing." Raven was not polite now. She had snapped his name and was glaring at him fiercely, clearly the most ferocious woman in the room. "Gwendolyn's harebrained idea… No, my daughter's harebrained idea could have damn well saved, not only myself, but your wife as well. If she and Liam hadn't caught me, the damages could have been one Hell of a lot worse than just a broken ankle. If Damon hadn't helped Starfire, who knows what would have happened?"
"Raven, you said so yourself that you felt your powers come back as you were falling. You didn't need them to catch you." Raven inhaled sharply and looked to her daughter whose expression had become indifferent.
"You said you wouldn't say anything," Raven said softly, still gazing at Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn's eyes were shut now, having heard her suspicions being confirmed.
"No, Mother, it's okay." The coolness in Gwendolyn's voice was eerie. Raven's eyes widened at her tone. "I knew it already. If you hadn't gotten tangled up in Liam and I, you would have been able to regain flight midair. We brought you down with us. I knew it."
"Gwen, no, that's not what happened." It was Doom speaking now. He knew he had said the wrong thing when he felt her stiffen in his grip.
"Don't call me that, Doom," she hissed. "My name is Gwendolyn, not Gwen. I'll be on the roof." And she swept away gracefully with as much dignity as she could muster, the door slamming shut behind her.
"Well, Rae," Garfield said awkwardly. "She's more like you than we ever thought she'd be."
"Go speak to your daughter, Garfield," Raven said through clenched teeth. "I'll be up in a moment."
Glad for the excuse to leave the room, for he knew that Raven was utterly terrifying when she was angry, he nearly fled the room. "Hey, Liam," Damon said loudly, eyes wide. "Don't you have to…uh…feed the fish?"
"We don't have any fish…" Liam said, staring at his brother, utterly confused. When Damon gave him a frustrated look, he said, "Oh! The fish! Right! Um, I need your help, they're really big fish…"
And the Stone boys fled, their hurried footsteps revealing the fact that they were running. Autumn grabbed her twin brother by the back of his shirt and slowly backed out of the room before also turning tail.
Nightwing quailed under Raven's furious gaze. No one had ever really guessed as to how protective Raven would be of her daughter. None of them had ever speculated as to how maternal a mother demon could really be. The extent of Raven's maternal instinct was never really displayed…but this was one of those rare occasions.
She snarled angrily, a proud lioness defending her young. "You promised!" she accused in a hiss. "I told you what would happen! I told you it would hurt her! Nightwing, you are so damn lucky that I haven't yet sent you to another dimension and left you there!"
"You did promise," Starfire interjected, hands on her hips. Jinx nodded sagely in agreement.
Nightwing was about to defend himself when another round of booming laughter came from Cyborg. "I remember what was so funny now!" Cyborg howled, doubled over with laughter.
Jinx threw her hands up into the air, exclaimed, "This is exactly why no one can communicate around here!", and stormed off.
"Cyborg, shut up!" Doom, Raven, and Starfire said together. Nightwing had taken the distraction as a gift from the heavens and quickly departed, hoping Raven would tend to Gwendolyn before finishing her course of, erm, "tearing him a new one" as Garfield had so eloquently phrased it once.
"Aw, you guys!" Cyborg said when they all left the room in a huff. "It was a 'you had to be there' moment!"