Chapter 5
[A week later – Blackfire's command ship]

The Justice league had indeed gone to assist the Grand Centauri Empire in capturing Lobo and Blackfire couldn't be happier.

"Well, Glgrdsklechhh," she said to her husband, "our plans are proceeding nicely. Those fools in the Justice League bought our little story. Lobo's being chased all through the Grand Centauri Empire and every bounty hunter in this quadrant have gummed up the works all around."

Glgrdsklechhh made some noises and appeared to be pleased.

"You should be happy, dear husband," Blackfire replied, "I've waited too long for this. Starfire put me in a Grand Centauri prison, then, banished me from not only my rightful place as ruler of Tamaran, but, exiled me. UGH!"

However, Glgrdsklechhh was also concerned. He knew Blackfire was only married to him for convenience, not for true love. He had been hurt when Starfire stood him up at the altar, but, he understood why as well. So, he made a deal with Blackfire: Marry him in place of Starfire and Tamaran would not be invaded for real by his forces. Blackfire only agreed when she reserved the right to invade her home planet.

Glgrdsklechhh was somewhat aware of the new Titan members, but, it was all rumor to him, so, he paid it no mind.

During his musings, the ship's captain knocked and was granted entry.

He bowed towards Blackfire and said, "Milady, sensors have picked up the vessel from Earth. We've halted for now to engage our cloaking device. We must wait here until they have gone passed us."

"How long will that be?" Blackfire asked.

"No more than one solar hour," he said.

"We're on radio silence, correct?" Blackfire asked.

"We are," he replied, "The other ships know to maintain the blackout for as long as necessary. They are waiting to break away and head for Tamaran."

That was part of Blackfire's plan. If Starfire would not come willingly … or her friends put up a fight, the rest of the fleet would begin to bombard Tamaran itself, forcing Starfire's hand.

"Excellent!" Blackfire cheered. She pulled up the sensor readings and, sure enough, there was one other ship, heading the opposite direction.

She hit a few keys and put the sensors into a passive mode. She wasn't taking any chances.

[Justice League Spaceship]

"That's odd," Wonder Woman said.

"What's that?" Green Lantern asked.

"For a moment, I thought we were being scanned, but, it's gone now," she said.

"Did you get a bearing on the source?" Green Lantern asked.

"I'm afraid not, it only lasted for a second and was gone," Diana mused.

"We'll check it out later," Superman said. They had a potentially dangerous bounty hunter to capture, after all. A weird reading could wait, right?

[Titan Tower]

David had returned home to Chicago a day after he arrived as his business needed him at the helm for some important deals, but, was told by Robin that he was welcome to visit whenever he wanted as thanks for helping take Cinderblock down again.

Edward seconded that and gave his son the engraved invitation to his wedding to one Rachel Roth AKA Raven. As Raven's only known relative also lived at the Tower, she had no qualms letting Bruce Wayne use her real name in the wedding invitations.

The team had taken the time to relax, and, to train more. Robin did not believe in letting the grass grow under his feet, so, the team was training hard.

Jericho was quickly developing into a top notch fighter as he didn't want to always rely on his ability to possess other people's bodies. He might have looked young, but, that didn't matter.

Raven and Terra would spar against each other at times and they played off each other's strengths a lot better.

At first, Edward was worried that they would have a repeat of their first sparring session, but, as he watched, those worries were put to rest fairly quickly. Both women were holding back on the use of their abilities as much as possible the first day. Edward made a mental note about that.

Today's sparring session was Edward and Cyborg facing off.

"Don't hold back, Vic," Edward said.

"I don't plan to," Cyborg said, "Bring it on."

"How about a friendly wager?" Edward asked.

"It's not gonna involve nuclear wings, will it?" Cyborg asked.

"Nope," Edward replied, "I'll play this one even…meaning I stay in human form. Winner buys dinner for the team for a week, the loser has to do the dishes for a week…by hand."

"That's not much of a bet," Raven deadpanned, "We already know who the winner is going to be anyway."

"Sister Raven," Starfire said, "Remember I defeated friend Edward before in the match of sparring."

"She's right, Raven," Robin said, "Edward can be defeated in an even fight. But, assuming that Edward does beat Cyborg, he usually buys the food for the team anyway. I say that if Edward wins, he treats the team to dinner for 8 nights. Each of us will get to pick the place nightly. If Edward loses, then, Cyborg can tell Edward what he will be doing for 8 days and Edward doesn't grouse about it."

Edward considered it and nodded, "I'm game if Cyborg is."

Cyborg held out his hand, "You're on, Fire Boy."

Edward took the extended hand and said, "Fire Boy, eh? Watch it, circuits for brains."

"Titans, go!" Robin said with a grin.

Edward gave Cyborg a hard push, staggering him for a second. Both men then grappled for several moments, trying to get the advantage. However hard Cyborg would push, Edward would push back. Oh, Edward could have won that part, but, he wanted to play as even as possible.

Edward applied more pressure and Cyborg let out a groan trying to push back. Then, Cyborg got an idea and quickly dropped down, throwing Edward off-balance. Then, Edward ended up with his strength turned against him as Cyborg used the momentum to propel Edward halfway across the training field. Edward landed with a thud as the other Titans winced.

[You OK?] Raven asked.

[Just peachy,] Edward replied as he got up.

Edward saw that Cyborg had armed his sonic cannon and dove out of the way as it fired.

[He calls that playing even?] Edward groused.

[You said that you'd stay in your human form, dear,] Raven consoled, [You didn't say that Cyborg couldn't bring his weapons into play.]

[I was going to let him win, but, now I'm not so sure,] Edward said.

[Well, look on the bright side: You win and when it's Beast Boy's turn to select, you know that it's a vegetarian place he'll select,] Raven said, adding a giggle to the end.

Edward smiled, "Good one, Cyborg! Just remember what happens if I win. It would become BB's turn at some point to select and I hear the Tofu Palace is a pretty good place."

"What?" Cyborg said, "You have got to be kidding! You're so beaten, Dragon!"

Edward had memorized Cyborg's designs and realized that he had a bunch of weak points. There were a few minor design flaws that Edward would exploit that wouldn't cause lasting harm to ole Victor.

"Bring it on, Tin Man. Or you still feeling the effects of Gizmo farting on you," Edward playfully taunted.

Cyborg charged Edward and just as they were about to collide, Edward exploited a weakness to temporarily knock his sonic cannons out of commission by throwing Cyborg around and hitting him in the back.

"Yo!" he yelled, "You took out my cannons."

"Well, shure nuff," Edward drawled, "I sure did. I'm playing this one even and making sure that you do the same. We'll fix those soon as I'm done.

"It was either that or break the agreement."

Cyborg sighed. He wheeled around and let his fists fly. Edward was caught off guard for a moment, but, his training from his Shaolin friends came back and he started blocking the fists, then, gave Cyborg a kick to put some distance between them.

They sparred for a good 15 more minutes, no one really getting an advantage until Cyborg made a mistake and Edward took advantage and locked Cyborg into a rear naked choke.

"You wanna tap out?" Edward said.

"Over my dead body!" Cyborg said, "I'm not eating any tofu!"

"You know it won't kill you?" Edward said, applying a little more pressure.

"I don't care!" Cyborg gasped, "I'll never live it down."

"Suit yourself," Edward said and really applied the pressure.

"Match is over!" Robin called out, "Edward wins by TKO."

Edward released the hold and helped Cyborg to his feet.

"Man," Cyborg groused, "I could have beaten that hold."

"Not without sustaining system damage, though," Edward said, "Turn around, I'll fix your cannons."

Cyborg muttered something under his breath but, turned around. A moment later, Edward reattached the loosened control chip and Cyborg's cannons were back on.

"Good as new," Edward said, "We'll figure out a way to harden this area, though."

"I don't even know how you knew about that," Cyborg remarked.

"Ancient Chinese Secret," Edward said.

"Yeah, right, and I know Sanskrit," Cyborg jabbed.

Little does he know, Edward said in Sanskrit, This is one of my favorite languages!

Same here, Raven replied.

Edward raised an eyebrow, "You speak Sanskrit?"

"Along with a few other language, yeah," Raven said, "Too bad I don't know Japanese, though."

"It's a difficult language to learn," Edward said.

"Starfire knows how to speak it," Beast Boy piped up.

"You do, Starfire?" Edward asked.

I do, friend Edward, Star replied in Japanese.

How did you learn it? Edward asked.

Starfire answered with a very quick kiss.

"You learn languages by kissing?" Edward asked.

"Yes," she replied, "It usually takes a longer kiss to fully learn the language."

"Sorry, Robin," Edward apologized.

"It's OK," Robin said, "I don't mind that, seeing we're teammates."

"Rob tends to get jealous," Cyborg said.

"I don't blame him," Edward said, "You don't need to see me on a jealous streak…or Raven for that matter."

"We've seen her jealous," Terra said, "She was jealous of me."

"I'm not anymore," Raven said, "But, yeah, I'll admit I was jealous of you. At the time, I had hidden feelings for Beast Boy. He had provided a caring shoulder to lean on after Malchior and I thought you were going to take him away."

"I did take him away, though," Terra said, "I'm sorry if I hurt you in the process."

"Nothing to be sorry about," Raven said, "I allowed that. Edward talked some sense into me and BB as well. Beast Boy couldn't have loved you or me in a romantic sense. He realized that right away and said…"

"Love one for love's sake and love the other as a sister," Edward said, finishing Raven's thought.

"I didn't need empathic skills here to see what was going on," he continued, "Without revealing too much, I hope, both Rae and BB had come to me with the same basic issue. And, I gave them the same basic advice. At the time, my friendship with you folks was just starting. Tara, we freed you the day after I met the other Titans, so, I was the best and most neutral person they could turn to. I could tell that Garfield was having a crisis. He loves both you gals, a lot. I can still sense an echo of what he felt for Raven once in a blue moon, but, both have settled into the brother-sister relationship just fine. I don't sense any remaining jealousy from Raven towards Terra."

Edward would have continued on, but the alert system interrupted their musings.

The team raced into the Tower and into the Ops Center.

Robin typed in commands and the AI responded verbally, "Long range scanners relayed via the WatchTower indicate that there is an incoming Gordanian force. This force consists of three large vessels and will be entering Earth orbit in six hours, 45 minutes."

"Are these warships?" Robin asked.

"Affirmative," the AI responded, "According to my data, these are Gordanian heavy cruisers."

Starfire's face went white, "No…"

"Kori?" Edward asked, picking up on Star's distress, "You OK?"

"I am not," she replied, "They are coming for me, I fear."

"Over my dead body!" Robin said.

"Got that right," Edward said, "I'm not going to stand by and watch you be taken into slavery! No chance in HELL that's gonna happen! Not on my watch!"

The team didn't know it, but, in the distant past, Edward was forced to kill several slavers in ancient Greece. He always felt that man was meant to be free, not owned nor beaten as forced labor. He made an exception when a court would determine that as part of a fair and just sentence, but, true involuntary servitude, he would not tolerate.

His eyes started glowing a dangerous yellow then.

[Easy, my love,] Raven said via the link.

[No one is going to take Starfire into slavery! I WON'T ALLOW IT!] Edward snarled.

[It's OK…we have Star's back. All of us, dear. That's how we all met. Starfire was being chased by these idiots and they threatened to destroy the city if we didn't hand her over. We destroyed their ship,] Raven said calmly. Her sense of calm started to seep into Edward's sudden anger and his eyes returned to normal.

"Yo, dawg!" Cyborg said, "We didn't hand Starfire over then, and we aren't going to do it now."

"The team's stronger than it was before," Robin noted, "With the recent additions, we can protect Starfire and the planet. Edward, can you get your son back here?"

"Damn straight David will help," Edward said, "We may need other Titans as well."

"Not my kids," Raven said.

"Agreed, hon," Edward said, "They are too young for this type of action."

"What about Kole?" Cyborg asked.

"Call her and Gnarrk," Robin ordered, "Get the Titans East as well. Heck, get the HIVE Five if we have to."

[Must be serious if Robin's willing to ally with enemies,] Edward said.

Raven merely nodded.

Edward got on the comms board and called his son first.

"Dad," he said, "What's wrong? I can feel your agitation from here."

"We have a problem, son," Edward said, "There's an interstellar threat inbound to Earth. It's probably to try to recapture Starfire."

David paled. He knew what his dad was like around slave traders/bounty hunters.

"I'll let my COO know he's in charge, Dad. I'll be there within the hour," he said.

"Thanks, son," Edward said and disconnected.

"Taught him right," Robin said.

"Damn straight!" Edward said with a smile, "Paula, his namesake and the rest of us made sure of that. He knows I wouldn't call him for backup unless it was necessary."

He punched up Kole's communicator next.

"Hi, Edward," she said a moment later.

"Hi, Kole," he replied, "I don't have time to explain much, but, we need your help."

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Short version…interstellar invasion. We could use your abilities," Robin said.

Kole looked off screen as Gnarrk was heard in the background.

"Gnarrk is worried," Kole said.

Cyborg said, "We're worried as well. They are coming to re-claim Starfire, we think."

"Not good," Kole said, "We're in."

"I'll come get you, then," Edward said, "Be ready. Don't worry about bringing anything. I'll get you whatever you and Gnarrk will need."

Edward stood up and said, "Please get hold of Batman, if he's in the WatchTower, please have him get the Titans East."

"I'll get them," Raven said.

Edward smiled, "Be safe, my dear."

Edward headed for the roof and saw David teleporting in. He waited until David landed and morphed back to his human form.

They embraced for a moment and Edward said, "Head to the Ops Center, son. I have to go pick up some allies. Rae's getting our expansion team from Steel City. Robin will brief you on what's happening, but, I shouldn't be gone too long."

"OK, Pop," David said and headed downstairs.

Edward morphed into his mini-Dragon form and took to the air. A moment later, there was a blue glow and Edward was gone.

[Kole's Tropical Paradise]

Edward arrived at Kole's place a few moments later and landed.

Kole and Gnarrk came out to greet their friend.

"Forgive me, but, I think only Kole should come with me. What's coming could paralyze Gnaark with fear, just like the rest of the population," Edward said kindly.

"Gnarrk!"

"I can't leave without Gnarrk," Kole said, "He's braver than you think."

Edward replied, "Well, it was a thought. Hop on."

Kole and Gnarrk got on. Edward took to the air and teleported back to the Tower.

[Tower]

Edward landed on the roof and the AI recognized the fact.

They headed downstairs and arrived at the Ops Center.

Rae had brought the Titans East over as well. They sat down and Robin introduced Edward to the newer team.

"Hola, Señor Eduardo," Mas y Menos said at the same time, "Como estas?"

"Muy bein," Edward replied in kind, "¿Habla inglish?"

"They do," Bumble Bee replied, "They prefer Spanish to speak, though."

"Not a problem," Edward replied, "Spanish is one of my primary languages, so, I can understand them in their native dialect."

He turned towards the twin speedsters and switched to Spanish, "¿Would you prefer me to translate what we need to discuss?"

"Sí," they said, "¡We would like that very much!"

"The floor is yours, Robin," Edward said in English.

Robin began with a brief history of the problem they faced. As Robin talked, Edward translated for the twins.

[An hour later]

Robin wrapped up his briefing and a game plan was formulated. It would be a difficult fight, though.

"How strong are these people?" Jinx wanted to know.

"They are most strong," Starfire said, "They are stronger than most of my people."

"I'm more concerned with their beam weapons," Edward mused, "If these are light based, I can reflect them back with my scales. So can David."

Kole had ended up getting a seat next to Edward's son and had the situation not been so dire, Edward thought that they might make an interesting couple.

"How powerful is their ship's main weapon?" David asked.

"It'll destroy Jump City," Starfire said.

"Military intervention?" Kid Flash asked.

"Their weapons are far more advanced than what we have," Robin said, "They would be killed."

"Do they have any deflector shields?" Edward asked.

"They do," Starfire replied, "Their shields of deflection would have to be destroyed somehow."

"Leave that to me or David, then," Edward said, "If we can teleport inside their shields, we can probably punch through their hull. They'd have to keep their hull light, I suspect. The amount of energy it would take to move those ships in a gravity well would be troublesome at best. If the hull was thicker than a couple of inches, thay might have a hard time in the planet's atmosphere."

"They have anti-gravity," Cyborg said, "That keeps the ships in the air."

Edward thought about it and replied, "That is a double edged sword, I hope. If we…"

The AI interrupted, "We're getting a signal from the WatchTower."

Robin said, "On the main screen."

Batman appeared and said, "Greetings Titans. I see that you already are aware of the problem. I've recalled the rest of the League, but, they will not be back in time. I'll hold them off as long as possible. But, I do not expect the WatchTower to withstand a prolonged conflict."

"Has there been any attempts to communicate with them?" Robin asked.

"They are ignoring our hails," Batman said, "They are still outside of weapons range as well. That will change within the next hour, though."

"There's time to get you off the station, if need be," Robin said.

"Wish we could be sure of what they want," Batman replied, "Don't worry about me, Robin. The WatchTower's already been remotely programmed, so, it will start mounting a defense should it be fired on. It's unmanned right now, so, chances are that it might be ignored regardless."

"Sounds good," Robin said. They signed off a moment later.

"Nothing to do now but wait," Edward said wistfully.

"Yeah," Cyborg said, "The Tower's defenses are locked and loaded for bear."

The wait would not be a long one.

Well, this is getting interesting. I hadn't planned on bringing the Titans East into this originally. Same with Kole and Gnaark, but, as I was writing this chapter, I realized that they were needed as well. I thought about the kids/Bobby, but, I remembered the big fight at the end of "Titans Together" and Raven saying "All right, just stay away from anyone older than you."

Read and review, please.