Aki- So, is anyone still reading this miserable story? Okay, well, here is the next chapter. I apologize for the long wait, parts of this have been written for a while, but it has not been complete. I will always finish the fanfics I start no matter how long it takes me. Here you are. Btw, there will probably be only one chapter after this, and that is more epilogue than chapter, but whatever.

Family

"Rogue" said an astounded Robin, as he stared up at the woman on the catwalk. "Madam Rogue was behind all of this?"

"That's impossible," said Beast Boy with a tiny breath.

"No, they all came out of their chronological freeze eventually. She wasn't the mastermind of the Brotherhood, but she wasn't dumb either," Robin reasoned.

"No," said Raven, staring up at the place where the villainess stood. "Gar and I dealt with Rogue again some years back. She was behind this terrorist plot— an explosion. We tried to stop her, and we made sure no innocents were killed, but she was stubborn about making sure it happened, no matter what. She died in the explosion. She killed herself in the explosion."

"Okay, what are we talking about?" said Halle, voicing the confusion of the three teens. She was ignored.

"But," Robin said with a vague wave of the hand. It looked like Rogue, sounded like Rogue, acted like Rogue, and all his reasoning was saying it was Rogue.

"It's not Rogue," Raven insisted. "It's her daughter."

Gar was the only one not perturbed by this revelation, well, him and the kids, as they had no idea is hell what was going on.

He added in an unanswered aside, "We've dealt with her before too."

"Val, we know it's you," Raven yelled.

Rogue—Val—whoever, didn't deny it. And, using the same ability as her mother, she seemed to melt away and reform into a new person— similar to Rogue in appearance, but younger, a tad shorter, and with longer hair and a different outfit, all black instead of Rogue's name appropriate red.

"Give it up, Val," Gar yelled too. "You lost. You're done."

"You cannot control us anymore!" added Starfire passionately. The villains on the catwalk above, disappointed at the turn of events, started shouting slurs and swears and insults down at the captives. Titans and company replied with shouts of their own, mostly directly to the Rogue-imposter, with demands to be set free, for their captors to surrender, and that justice would be served.

Val was irate, silently solemn, with fingers twitching into fists. Then she screamed a scream that pierced through all the other voices and deflated them. It was not just a scream that was loud, but it was raw. It made one's throat hurt just thinking that one could scream like that. The intensity of the scream was all driven into one word,

"Quiet!"
And the room became so.

"It's over," Robin said loudly.

"Non," she said, seething, almost shaking. "It iz not over. Not until I get my revenge."

"Revenge? For what?"

"For taking my mother away from me!" she screeched in desperation.

"We didn't kill her," said Raven in a voice that was both commanding and placating.

She shook her head despite the distance making the nuance useless. "Your team took her away from me long before you drove her to her death . Her year long obsession to destroy you with zee Brotherhood of Evil. Freezing her. Imprisoning her. By zee time she was free again, I was grown up. And now, she is dead.

"And I think to myself, what a fitting punishment it would be for the Titans to suffer zee same fate as my mother— leaving their children behind to suffer. And what a better what zan to make zem depart as villains instead of heroes.

"Then your meddlesome children got involved and I had to improvise. A family fight to zee death seems good under short notice, non?" [1]

Val took a step back from the rail of the catwalk she had been gripping with a sort of desperate, choking anger and stood tall, her vigor renewed. "It matters not." Her eyes peeled away from the Titans and she gave her attention to her henchmen and colleges. "Fellows, our plan has not succeeded as dreamed. However, not all is lost. The Titans are still our captives and we outnumber them. What about a little more… hands on revenge."

A rebel rousing call of approval went out through the room. The former Titans and their children looked around at the crowd surrounding them above, realizing the fight they thought was now only beginning.

"Destroy them," was the last thing Val said, her voice deep and purely venomous. The henchmen that could fly or safely leap from the raised walkway to the down did so with screams, the others running and pushing through the doors ways to get down the staircases on the other side.

"Open the doors!" some villain yelled and the doors of the cages clicked unlocked.

"Get out," Robin said swiftly and loudly over the scramble of the villains quickly surrounding them. "We don't want to get stuck in these cages. Get out and meet on top the cage were we can fight them off."

There was no time to argue and they all split into the pairs they had been assigned up fate and ran to their respective cage door, sliding them open. Starfire used one strong starbolt to blast the awaiting ninja, dressed in head to toe black into another attacker, who was dressed in a trenchcoat and with a fedora obscuring his face. She grabbed Halle by the arm and took flight. The ninja got back on his feet and jumped, latching himself onto Halle's ankle, she kicked her leg violently, hitting him against the side of the cage. He released her.

Kaden and Raven had been able to levitate them rather quickly, Kaden making a black disc to hold them as Raven fended off attackers, including a rather aged, washed up looking Punk Rocket. Cyborg and Beast Boy skidded out the doorway of the cage they had fought in. Cyborg instantly transformed his arm into the sonic blaster and let off a blaze of blue blast into the oncoming horde. Beast Boy transformed into a dinosaur, something the confinement of the cage had prevented him from doing, and swung his thick and heavy tail around in the crowd, flattening many, including Adonis, ready in fresh red robotic armor, zesty for an old fight.

"Come on," Beast Boy said, transforming into his natural human form, now that they had a brief clearing. A moment later he was a pterodactyl clasping Cyborg's shoulders in his claws as if this were a daily routine, like it once had been.

When Robin and Alex exited there cage they had to throw themselves instantly into the fight. Robin found himself in hand-to- hand combat with what must have been a seven foot woman welding a heavy club as a weapon. He ducked a swing of the club at his head and then dodged a heavy swing down. The club struck the floor leaving a dent in its wake. Robin grimaced. Alex shot a wavering starbolt from one fist, but the time it hit its first target, a man who had seemed to sport a suit made of blue crystals, it was mostly dissipated and was a barely a hindrance. It probably just gave off a mild sting.

Alex paused and shook his head to clear it so he could concentrate. He shot another starbolt, stronger this time, and it hit crystal man on the shoulder, causing him to stumble for a moment, but not stop his charge. He was sure he was about to be pancaked when he felt a hand on his upperarm and he was yanked out of the way and into his father. The crystal-suit guy couldn't stop in time and he ran straight into the cage wall.

"Climb," his father hissed into his ear before giving him a little shove. Alex laced his fingers through the gaps in the cage, but whipped his head around.

"Dad?" he asked, tentatively, worried, the unsaid question being 'aren't you coming too?'

"Go!" Robin demanded and he sounded angry. Alex gulped and nodded, wide-eyed like he was six years old again and not in fact sixteen. A moment later he had turned around and began his ascent. His mother gripped his arms as he neared the top and she pulled him to the top with ease. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close, just for a brief moment, for there wasn't much time for affection in the midst of a battle. She pulled him away from her, hands gripped tightly, but not too tightly on his shoulders. Alex thought strayed to the odd thought of how hard it must have been for her to learn how to measure her own strength, to be light enough not to hurt, but firm enough to be comforting. But there were no time for such thoughts now. She stared him in the eyes.

"Good job, son," she said, but it was barely a whisper and he couldn't hear it through the mayhem, but he could read her lips. A half second later, he jolted where he stood as she reached a straight arm and a clenched fist over his shoulder and shot a starbolt off. He heard a small 'oomph' over everything else. She had just taken down an oncoming enemy.

"Get those starbolts ready, Alex, we have a fight ahead of us." With that she pushed him over to where the rest of the Titans had congregated on the center of the cage on a small circle, backs to each other. He fell in next to Kaden's mother, who he was unfamiliar with but looked startlingly like him. Her eyes slide to observe him for half a moment, before snapping back to slash an attack of her dark energy. He had seen Kaden do it, but it obvious who was more well-trained, practiced, and powerful. To be honest, he was glad he wasn't going up against her. Raven was a bit scary.

Around him, all of the Titans were fighting. Cyborg using his sonic blast to plow down opponents, like Raven was and his mother had been, but she was now pulling her husband up to the top of the cage like she had Alex. Kaden was following the example of his own mom. Halle and Beast Boy, who were more hands-on with their abilities, took down baddies as they climbed or landed onto the top of the cage.

His mother and father joined his side. "Come on, Alex," his Dad said, but it was kinder than earlier, his eyes having a soft expression to them. He got it then, why dad had yelled at him to climb. He had been worried, scared even. Maybe he had always been worried, all of his life, why he had pushed him, wanted him to be different that he was. He had only wanted him, his children, to be safe.

Crowded back to back on the top of the cage, the eight of them fought and defended themselves and each other. It was something fluid that almost disappeared in their thoughts and wonderings how they worked so seamlessly, yet at the same time in an almost panicked roughness. As difficult and seemingly endless as this battle was with odds set perilously against the Titan family, they had something, some desperate hope and passion, and a spirit of unity, that kept them standing undefeated in that fight. Now reunited there was the silent agreement the exuded from their panted breaths, the brief glances of eye contact between them, the gentle, friendly brushing of shoulders where all other contact was malicious: they would not be broken apart now. During this squabble, the odds somehow twisted and changed.

The fight kept on. But somehow, despite the odds, they seemed to be winning. The waves kept coming, but they were not drowning in the horde. In fact, they were managing very well. In fact, it was not that hard at all. Eight of them, together, no drugs, not divided, fighting as one, watching each of other's back. And maybe there really was something about the power of love and friendship and family, or the mere fact that they had something worth fighting for, more than any of the villains and lackeys here. And, eventually, the tides of attackers slowly. Some were incapacitated, either groaning on the floor nursing their wounds or straight out unconscious, even more were slipping out of the room, trying to go unnoticed, realizing that this fight, not being easily won, was not a fight they wanted to be involved in. Only a few remained, the strongest and most skilled, ones that had pride or stubbornness or some sense of loyalty to a mission. But eventually they came the outnumbered ones.

The Titans didn't see it, but Val was seething from her place overlooking the scrabble going on. Even separated, even with children who were uncouth and rough in their training, they were beating the multitudes of her henchmen being thrown at them. The Titans truly were legend. Better than she anticipated, way better.

She wasn't stupid. She knew a battle lost when she saw one. She had lost, all this, a waste. Sleepless hours of planning, organizing, sweeping up groups of her fellows willing to listen to her command and with enough spite in their bellies to go against the Titans. Even though the fight was still staggering on, she had already accepted defeat, and marched out of the room, down a hallway, alone, and left. She was done. If she ever crossed the paths of any of the Titans or their offspring again, she would be ruthless, but she had wasted too much of her life on this, on hurting, on revenge, and couldn't force it anymore.

"Je suis désolée, Mére," she whispered into the emptiness of the metal-walled hallway, the sounded of the battle dying behind her with every long stride she took, nothing but the click of her heals on the floor filling the air around her. "I tried. I tried."

And…it was over. Even the one or two who still had passion and revenge coursing through their veins dare not risk themselves and capture against the eight who were able to taken on the horde. And with a leader who abandoned them, the last who fought by fear or loyalty were gone too. Victory. In the past, the Titans would have pursued, plans of arresting and justice being served, but now they remained, weary, on top of the cages, content to be living.

Alex was bent in double, resting a hand on his knee, breathing hard, his arm that had been injured earlier held against his chest, panting roughly. Halle stepped closer to him, her breath heavy, but even, and rested a caring hand lightly on his shoulder. For the first time since before their kidnapping, Kory embraced Dick, who squeezed his arms around her back, the comfort of the familiar filling him as he watched his children over Kory's shoulder. Gar ran a hand down Raven's arm, ending at her hand, where she grabbed his and held without even looking. Gar used his other hand to vigorously ruffle Kaden's hair when he approached. "Dad," said Kaden in a little whine, but he smiled anyway.

Cyborg—Victor—stood alone, awkwardly, apart from them, feeling like he intruding on other's meetings. He felt uncomfortably alone.

And why did he expect anything to change anyway? Weren't they all at the same place they had started. Parents and children. Husbands and wives. And he hadn't a part in it.

He took a step back, his metal foot against the metal bars, grating, his nerves thin. He got it. He had played his part, helped rescue his former brothers-and-sisters-in-arms, helped a couple of kids get reunited with their parents. He wasn't bitter about it. It was the right thing to do, and that was what he was supposed to do, the right thing. But he worked alone now, had for a long time, and he hadn't stepped into this mess to get the old team together or anything.

Best to leave now. Goodbyes were always awkward, at best, and he didn't want to bother with getting tied up with them. He turned to go, just barely.

"Where do you think you're going?" a cool calculated voice asked him. He spun on heal to find Raven pegging him with a steady, fairly emotionless stare. She had caught everyone's attention, Kaden and Gar, watching fairly obviously, with Kori, Dick, and the twins being a little more subtle where the stood a bit further away.

He opened his mouth, but Raven was still fairly intimidating, perhaps even creepier as an adult, completely in control of herself. "Well," he finely croaked out lamely, "This seems more like…" he paused and waved a hand, "a family thing."

She crossed her arms and raised a thin eyebrow. Cyborg readied himself for a scathing remark that would seem appropriate to accompany such an expression.

"You are family." It was a horribly cheesy thing to say, but Raven managed to make it completely honestly, like an understated fact finally sliding to the surface.

[1] anything here remind you of Scooby Doo?