Author's Notes: Hey y'all! Guess what we've got for y'all tonight! That's right! An update! Be ready, because the parents are showing up in this one! I know y'all have been waiting for this for a while, so enjoy the show!

Every King Needs a Queen

Chapter 5: The Adults Are Talking

Maria used her dark magic to open a portal to the top of the tower. When she stepped through her breach, she had to use her arm to cover her eyes as the wind created by the wings of a dragon blew in her face. By the time she was able to see again, the obsidian, scaly form of the dragon had been replaced with the well-toned body of an obscure man. His shaggy, untamed hair was marbled with brown and grey. His deep hazel eyes dulled with age, but still burned with a heated passion for injustice. He wore his signature black coat, now stained, frayed and torn from his past battles. Around his waist was a belt that held his varies weapons that he had collected over the years.

In his arms he carried a woman, his wife and companion whom he placed gently onto the ground. She stood just under his chin, yet her small frame was misleading to those who knew of the power that ran through her veins and the experiences that flashed behind her crystal-like eyes. She stood with a confidence that made Maria envious. Her pink hair fell to her shoulders, and still looked as bright and as soft as ever. Clearly, this woman cared more for her appearance than the man at her side. And unlike her husband, she dressed in a more comfortable fashion, sporting a whimsical, baby-blue sundress that was patterned with bright yellow carnations.

As the couple approached the younger girl, her palms began to sweat, and she fought back the urge to run her gloved hands through her hair. Any nervous habit would be obvious to this pair and showing weakness in front of ones with such authority would look poorly on her part and undermine her own role here. So, the young changeling stood straight and bit the inside of her cheek as she looked upon the older duo with an empty gaze. She extended her hand out to the man who came to her first and offered a respectful greeting.

"Mr. and Mrs. Daniels, welcome to the Teen Titans West Tow- "

"Where is she?" He growled, ignoring her opened hand. The intensity of his glare made Maria's figurative tail duck between her legs, but again she fought the urge to react.

"We do not have a location yet on Arella, but I have already assigned – "

He rolled his eyes "Not her! My daughter! Chloe! Where is she?"

Before Maria could answer, Mrs. Daniels came forward, placing a calming hand on her husband's shoulder and pulling him back slightly. "What Drake means is that we appreciate you contacting us, Maria. Now if you could please escort us to Chloe, we would appreciate that." Kole Daniels spoke with a steady and gentler voice, but Maria noticed the coloring of her knuckles as she held back her husband by his arm. Somehow, her reasonable request and peaceful presence diminished some of the tension that came off between the two other alphas on the roof. Maria nodded her head, as almost an unspoken thank you to the wiser woman.

"Right this way." She said as she turned and led them back inside.

She led them soundlessly further into the tower, as they made their way to the special prison designed to hold even the strongest of metahumans. As they made their trip, Maria's empathic senses picked up on the burning fury that came off the dragon knight behind her. She could smell the scent of cigar smoke, vinegar, and pepper that made up the distinct smell of anger. She clenched her fists, but kept a steady pace as she led them to their destination.

Once they entered into the small space that came between them and the containment unit, Maria took notice of the temporary prisoner inside. The pink-haired girl sat on the floor with her head against the wall and her eyes to the ceiling as if she were looking at something. Satisfied that her prisoner was being herself, Maria used one hand to pull off her glove and placed her exposed hand on the panel that was placed to the side of the door. The panel scanned her prints, then after a heartbeat, the it blinked green and the door slid open, granting them access.

Before Maria could take two steps in, Kole pushed past her and made a beeline for her daughter with open arms and wrapped them around her daughters neck. Not at all bothered by the cuffs that dangled around her hands between them.

"Oh honey, I've missed you so much! Are you okay? Why is it everytime we come to visit you, it's because you've gotten yourself into some kind of trouble? Oh, it doesn't matter right now. I'm just glad you're okay." She squeezed her tighter, pressing Chloe's head into her chest.

"Mom...your boobs are in my face." Chloe grumbled as she tried to squirm out of her mother's grasp.

Slightly embarrassed, She let go of her daughter and stood back up to give her some space. "Sorry."

"Hey what about me?" Kole glanced at Drake who had been stuck in place by solid crystals around his ankles formed by his loving wife.

She glared. "Are you gonna behave?"

He rolled his eyes and put on his widest, fakest smile. She scrunched her nose. It would have to do. She waved her hand and released him, but his smile quickly vanished with the crystal.

"Dad, just let me explain."

"Somebody better. We get a call saying you've been 'detained' and Arella has gone missing, but no one is telling us why!"

"Don't forget she knocked out her leader." Maria glared.

Drake waved her off, "Yeah I don't care about that."

Chloe stood up beside her mother, but kept a bit of a distance between her and her father. "Okay so about a week ago -"

"Hold on." Drake interrupted her. It only took him three strides to cross the room. When he reached her, he held out his hand, ready to clutch the chains of her cuffs and melt them on the spot, but Chloe stepped back, out of his reach. Before he could protest, Chloe wiggled her arms, and out popped both her hands, now free of the power-canceling cuffs.

Both Maria and Drake starred at the young girl in amazement. "What the hell?" They said in unisine.

Chloe simply shrugged. "Oh come on, like you didn't teach us how to escape power-canceling cuffs in the first week of training?" She said as she looked over at Maria who huffed and crossed her arms.

"Anyways, back to what I was saying. About a week ago, Uncle Landon came to me-"

"-oh god!" Both Kole and Drake groaned facepalming.

"ANYways he was asking me for a favor." Drake and Kole glanced at her in horror causing her to roll her eyes. "Shut up, I kept my soul. He told me that Arella was about to get blamed for something bad, and when that happens, I should give him a call on this." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a classic flip phone about the size of her thumb. She held it out for everyone in the room to see, but Drake quickly snached it from her hand.

"That crazy mother fucker gave you my old phone." He mumbled under his breath, but it was still loud enough for everyone to here.

"Drake, language." Kole scolded her husband, before turning back to her daughter. "Go on Chloe."

The younger knight nodded her head at her mother in gratitude before continuing. "So anyway, I didn't understand what he was blabbering about at the time, but when I overheard Maria accuse Arella of murder, I just knew that was what he meant. How he knew that was going to happen is beyond me, but I did as he told me. Arella teleported us to some beach around here, and I gave him a call."

A scary silence settled over the cell. "M-Murder?" Kole squeaked.

"Arella is a suspect in a series of murders." Maria spoke. "I have the evidence to back it up."

The scary silence again this time causing Drake to begin pacing the cell, rubbing his face with his hands. He stopped at the wall, the overwhelming information buzzing around his head like killer bees. "So Arella is with Landon then?" Drake questioned.

Chloe answered him with a nod.

"Damnit." Drake cursed once again, ignoring the scaving look his wife was sending him. "Chloe, what did I tell you about him?"

Chloe wasn't in the mood for a lecture, or stupid questions, so her response was as snippy as she could get. "Don't trust him."

"And what did you do?"

"I trusted him." She sighed. "But you don't understand, Dad, Arella had no one else to turn to! If she had stayed here, she would be the one locked up right now, not me and god know what else. Besides YOU trusted him before!"

"That was different!" He barked. "We did what we HAD to do! This is just two teenagers in way over their heads!"

Chloe narrowed her now slitted eyes, but before anything could escalate further, Kole stood between them, but spoke to Maria. "Maria, have you contacted your parents yet?"

"No ma'am, not yet. I'll go ahead and do that now."

"Good. As both your father and your boss, Gar deserves to know as soon as possible."

Maria nodded her head in agreement, but before she could excuse herself to make the call, a flash of red showed up in the doorway. Bart Allen caught his breath after coming to a stop by the door.

"Hey boss, we've got some more visitors."

"What? Who?"

Just then, the tower's security system sounded throughout the tower. "Welcome, Changeling and Raven."

"Oh crap." Maria muttered, but begrudgingly stepped out of the room and went to accept her fate.

When she entered the common room, she was met with the backs of her parent's who were currently conversing with the other members of her team. Her father was the first to hear her enter the room, and his worried gaze fell upon her as she approached them. Raven followed his line of sight to her daughter, whom was quickly taken into her arms.

"Maria, thank goodness, is everything alright?" Her mother asked her in her signature gravelly voice.

"How did you know if anything was wrong?" Maria answered with another question.

"Mother's intuition." Raven deadpanned.

"Plus your mother just happens to be the greatest empath in the universe, so of course she knows if something fishy is going on between one or more of her kids." Garfield added as he stepped closer to Maria. The older man may have been as fit as a whistle, but years of battle still made themselves known. His once thick, forest green hair, now shining with grey streaks and thinning over the top. The corners of his mouth now wrinkled from every past smile and frown. His suit mirrored her own, white with purple around the sides and collar. Only his had no emblem over the chest.

His wife and mate beside him nodded her head in agreement. Her own features aging as well. Her once deep violet locks that fell past her shoulders now had grey roots, and her small body had some added weight, compliments of her child-bearing years. She had no wrinkles though, and in fact, her skin looked as flawless as ever, due in large part to her self-healing abilities. Her long, navy blue cloak just barely missed the floor and hung against her wide shoulders. She addressed her daughter with a sense of urgency.

"Now where is Arella?"

For some reason, Maria felt a spike of jealousy rise within her. Even though Arella was the problem at the moment, it still felt wrong for them to immediately worry about her baby sister before her. Would it kill them to think about her for a change? But Maria had to shove those feelings away, for there were more pressing matters to attend to.

"That's the problem Mom. You see," She hesitated. Was she really about to tell her own mother that her sister, their daughter was a killer? No going back now. "About a week ago the guy we were after was brutally murdered before we could get to him. Just like twelve others before him. So I went to the crime scene to investigate, to see if this was more than a coincidence."

Raven wide eyes urged her to continue. "And?"

Maria gulped. The eyes of her parents plead for the truth, but, how could she tell them. She inhaled through her nose. "And while I was there, I picked up . . . Arella's scent." Raven let out a gasp in horror, her hands shooting to cover her mouth, while Garfield looked away in distraught, but Maria hadn't finished. "I also found a security camera that I had Susan salvage for me."

At this, Raven held up her hand to silence her. "No. I-I don't want to hear this." She looked over to her husband who was now pacing the common room floor.

"Sorry Raven, you'll need to hear this." The sarcastic voice of Drake Daniels came from behind Maria, forcing the girl to turn her attention to him. Raven regarded the dragon knight with a suspicious gaze. Garfield stop his pacing to do the same.

"Drake." Garfield scuffed as he stepped in between the other man and his wife and daughter. "What are you doing here?"

"Dealing with my out of control daughter, same as you." Garfield opened his mouth to retort, but his reply was cut off. "I'm not here to start a fight with you. It seems that my Kid, helped your kid escape. With him."

"Landon." When Raven said the name, the temperature in the room dropped and her eyes transformed into red burning slits.

Drake shrugged, "And you win the trip to Maui."

Raven snarled, a more disturbing noise than anything Gar could do. "That bastard has been hovering around Arella ever since that night he killed Carnus." She said through clenched teeth, the rage in her voice sending a chill down the normally tough as nails demon killer. However, it only took the calming touch of her green husband to return her features back to normal.

"Where are they?" Gar asked.

Drake shrugged again, "I don't know-"

"-your bffs and you don't know!?"

"Settle down!" Drake commanded, "A) were not joined at the hip and B) we don't speak unless he visits Chloe. But I may have a clue." He reached into his coat and pulled out the phone he confiscated from Chloe and waved it in the air.

"Seems his royal pain in the ass gave a parting gift to Chloe."

Gar moved quickly to try and swipe the little device, but Drake (even after all these years) was still quicker.

"Give me the phone, Drake!" Gar growled. During his years as an authoritative figure, Gar had learned how to be more intimidating and direct, but even if his temper could make the young heroes he trained wet their pants, it was useless on the even scarier monster slayer.

"We both know you are the last person Landon will talk to." Drake reasoned.

"Maybe so, but I know he will talk to me." Raven spoke up, slightly startling the two grown men who seemingly forgot she in the room. Before Drake could protest, Raven was already halfway to the door. "Come on, we'll do this in the old study."

Drake cast a curious gaze over to Gar who looked as if he were pouting like a child. Seeing that he was not going to make a move to stop his wife, Drake figured he shouldn't either.

"I guess we'll go see what we can find out from Landon, in the meantime, maybe Maria here can catch you up in what's been going on here." Drake offered to Gar as he followed Raven out the door.

Raven's scowl never left her face for the entirety of the journey to the study, which was the very same one used by Dick Grayson himself all those years ago. Such simpler times they were, when she only had her teammates to worry about. Once they went inside the smaller room, she began pacing, mentally screaming her mantra to calm herself.

"This all makes sense now," she mumbled, "he's watched us for years, waiting and plotting."

"Don't give him so much credit." She wiped her head to Drake's direction, "he didn't plan on what Arella would do, he just knew she would snap eventually." He lowered his tone as he reached for the phone, "just like we all did." She fought the urge to rip his head off, but deep down she knew he was right. With the phone dialed he turned to her. "You ready for this?"

She sighed walking to his side. "Sure." He hit the speed dial.

"I was wondering when I would hear from you." The Englishmen spoke from the other end of the line.

"Where's my daughter?" Raven snapped, the sound of his arrogant voice making vile rise in her throat.

"Raven? I thought it would be Drake calling me?" He seemed genuinely surprised.

"Don't worry I'm here too."

"Aw! There's my second favorite dragon!"

Raven ignored their banter, "Last time, where is-"

"She's fine darling, she's resting."

"That doesn't answer my questions-"

"-relax." He said again more forcefully. But now it was Drake's turn.

"You've got a lot of nerve involving my daughter in all this."

"Yes, yes I'm a horrible person, I will burn in Hell. Oh wait, I already did that. Here's the situation we find ourselves in. Arella has, by my count, killed at least twelve, all current guests of my kingdom so no worries there, and before she gets to far gone I've taken it upon myself to stop that. Which you obviously FAILED to do in the last eighteen years."

"AS IF YOU EVER GOT THE PARENT OF THE YEAR AWARD!"

Raven slammed her hands onto the table, shrieking into the cellphone producing a good three to five minutes of silence from everyone in the room, including Landon. Drake placed a hand on her shoulder to ease her tension when Landon spoke again.

"Toushay, but you have to agree things are a bit out of hand at this point and 'hoping' things will get better isn't going to cut it."

The two were quiet for a moment as they let this new information marinate, "I'm going to put you on hold." He hit the mute button and turned to a confused Raven. "Listen. Rav-"

"No." She shot. "I'm not considering letting my daughter stay with him."

"Raven, just hear me out," his tone was as calm as he could make it. "I love Arella like she was my own. She has been a sister to Chloe in every way imaginable, and I don't want her to give in to Trigon's influence as much as you don't, but if Landon-"

"NO!" She screamed. "She is my child, and her family will handle this!"

"How? Raven, Arella killed people. I don't know the circumstances, but it won't look good to the League, or anyone else and you can't protect her from that."

Her eyes were narrow, hateful slits and her tone even and flat. "Watch me." She grabbed the phone, unmutting it. "Give her back to me. NOW!"

Landon let out a growl of frustration from the other line. "Why can't you understand?! I. Am. Not. The bad guy!"

Once again, Raven's tone was flat, even, and threatening, "Your a full blooded demon. You will ALWAYS be the bad guy. Now give her back to me, or you WILL know pain."

The other end was silent for a few heartbeats. "Darling. I already know pain. I'm doing this, because I want it to stop." And the phone went dead.

Raven buried her head in her palms, and her body began to shake as sobs began to escape her lips. Objects around the room were encased in black magic and began floating about. Drake stood there awkwardly, as he stared at the weeping mother. The gears in his mind began to turn as he tried to figure out their next move. For now, however, he realized the best thing to do was to let his old friend mourn the disappearance of her daughter in peace. Oding the only thing he knew how to do, he reached out a tentative hand over Raven, and placed it gently on top of her silky hair. Raven stilled for a moment, as if she was reminded of the other person in the room, but then turned around and wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face into his chest. Drake stood frozen as she continued to cry. Slowly, his arms wrapped around her own body, and he simply stood there while she stained his shirt with her tears.

Unbeknownst to them, across the ocean, sitting back in a chair as the fire of the fireplace crackled in front of him, casting a soft glow upon his body in the dead of night, was the demon king himself. He sat in his chair, staring off into the dancing flames, an old cell phone in one hand and a glass of scotch in the other. Not far from him, a young girl slept peacefully in her room, safe and sound. Just as he had promised. Yet the words of the girl's mother rang in his ears, just as harsh as the first time they had hit their target.

"As if you ever were the parent of the year!"

His thoughts strayed from the girl sleeping in the room to an even younger girl, curled up in a peaceful slumber. Her skin white as milk and her hair dark as the feathers of a raven. And with these thoughts, a single tear left his eye and slid down his cheek, until it fell onto the phone that still read the caller-ID.

RAVEN

Author's Notes: So there is a lot of significance into this ending that will make more sense as we progress. If any of you read BH's stories, you may already know what I'm referring to, so yay for you! Again, I apologize for the unplanned hiatus. It was entirely on me. I write when I can, and when I feel inspired to do so. Not only do I need time to write, I also (more importantly) need the right mood to write. So for that reason, this story may come and go in spurts, but I promise you all that BH and I will make it worth the ride!

As always, if you read it, please review it! Your support is always appreciated!

Many thanks,

L.B.

Disclaimer: Drake Daniels, Chloe Daniels and Landon owned by bearhow. Maria Logan and Arella Logan owned by Lou Buggins. All other characters owned by DC Comics. Story co-written by bearhow and Lou Buggins.