Mariana sighed, looking at her cake. It had been a week since the Titans had returned to Jump City, with Mariana in tow.
"What's wrong?" Cyborg asked. The rest of the titans were going out to get dinner, or were training. It was just Mariana and Cyborg in the main room.
"It doesn't taste as sweet," Mariana muttered.
"Come on, you still have Aqualad and Speedy," he reminded her.
"I know, but they don't love each other yet," Mariana told him. "It doesn't feel the same."
"Hey, what did you mean?" Cyborg asked.
"What are you talking about?" Mariana asked, tilting her head.
"You said that if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even be here," Cyborg answered.
"You created me," Mariana answered, taking a bite of cake. "You combined daddy and papa's DNA to create me. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't exist."
"So, you're basically an experiment?" Cyborg asked in confusion.
"No. You made me at my fathers' requests. They wanted a child but who would let a superhero adopt a kid," Mariana laughed sadly. "So, you combined their DNA. And since neither of them had a womb, you recreated one for me to grow and develop."
"I see," Cyborg nodded. "Well that explains why you have traits of both Speedy and Aqualad."
"Uh-huh," Mariana nodded, taking another bite of cake. "I'm going to do some archery practice."
"Alright, see ya," Cyborg nodded.
Mariana entered the training room and saw Chance running on a treadmill. Sunburst was next to a machine, monitoring him. Mariana saw the target range and reached inside her quiver, taking out an arrow. She aimed them and quickly released it. She reached out and pressed a button making the targets move. Mariana took out several arrows and aimed once more.
"Go Mariana!" Chance cheered.
"Chance, focus," Sunburst growled. "You're going at 90 miles per minute."
"Ninety? My stop speed was 150!" Chance shouted, speeding up. Mariana took a deep breath and released the arrows, hitting dead center as the targets moved past.
"Good job," Sunburst nodded. "Chance stop. You're sweating so much that your hair is starting to look pink." Chance slowed to a stop and leaned over, panting.
"Sixty miles…how could I have decreased by sixty miles?" Chance muttered, wiping sweat off of his forehead.
"Maybe you've tired yourself out," Sunburst suggested. "You've been running around getting cake for Mariana."
"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" Mariana asked.
"Yes, no more cake, for a week," Sunburst nodded. "Not running all the way around the world could help Chance speed back up."
"You're telling me to stop giving our cutesy sweet girl cake?" Chance asked in shock.
"Yes," Sunburst nodded. Mariana dropped her bow in shock, her jaw dropping to the floor with it.
"I…I can't have sweet stuff…?" She sniffed. "But…I heard Japan made a new candy…"
"You can have cakes and things, but Chance can't get them," Sunburst told her.
"Alright…" Mariana sniffed. The leader exited the room.
"Damn…she's serious too…" Chance muttered.
"At least I can still have sweets," Mariana smiled, cheering up.
"Do you really want to do this?" Robin smirked, walking into the jewelry store.
"Seriously, even in the future you're still going at this," Sunburst sighed, looking at LeBlanc.
"Sorry Teen Titans, but zese jewels are mine!" The French man declared.
"Not while we're around," Cyborg smirked, aiming his arm cannon.
"Think you guys can get him outside?" Chance asked.
"Consider it done," Raven nodded.
"Alright," Chance zipped outside.
"Titans GO!" Robin ordered. The six teens rushed at the thief. Beast boy flipped over him and turned into an ox, ramming into him. Raven lifted the floor tiles and threw them at his back. LeBlanc ran towards the exit.
"One more push!" Sunburst told them. Robin ran at LeBlanc, kicking him in the back. The French thief stumbled into the streets. He stood up and quickly began running.
"Do you really think you can outrun me?" Chance smirked, running in front of him. LeBlanc turned around quickly, running towards the opposite side of town. He stopped when he saw Mariana, bow at the ready.
"You're about to see one of our best moves!" Sunburst smirked, firing a starbolt at a nearby fire hydrant. The top flew off and water gushed out. Mariana narrowed her eyes and tipped her head, directing the flow towards LeBlanc. Without breaking her concentration, she aimed her arrow and released it. When the tip hit the man, he coursed with electricity and fell to the ground. Mariana walked over to him, another arrow at the ready. The Frenchman slowly and weakly pushed himself up.
"Don't move," she ordered lowly. "Or my next arrow will be twice as strong." LeBlanc groaned, falling back to the ground.
"Whoa…that was totally freaky," Beast Boy whistled.
"That's why it's our best move," Sunburst nodded. "Combining Mariana's control over water with either her freezing or electric arrows makes it an instant capture."
"Papa taught me how to use a bow and arrow in case I was ever away from water," Mariana giggled. "It was daddy who came up with the idea when he remembered something. He said something about a 'cheap shot'." Robin smirked and chuckled. Cyborg and Beast boy both let out a chuckle, remembering the event.
"Speedy and Aqualad were forced to fight the moment they met," Robin explained. "Speedy froze Aqualad in a tower of water, using a trick arrow that froze the water."
"I see," Mariana nodded. "So they didn't have the best first meeting. They still had me!" She giggled, poking her cheeks. The police force rolled up and took LeBlanc.
"Ummm…sorry about the fire hydrant," Sunburst apologized. "She controls water," she gestured to Mariana who smiled and waved before spinning under the falling water. Ribbons of water followed her hands, dancing with her.
"It's alright, we'll explain it to the fire department, get them to fix this," an officer nodded, entering the truck.
"Hey Mariana! There's a cake shop over there!" Chance called, pointing at a small earthy building.
"Oh yay! Let's get some cake before we go back to the tower!" Mariana cheered, racing for the shop.
"Well, we better stop her from buying the whole store," Raven muttered, following her.
"Yay! I love cake!" Mariana giggled, taking a bite.
"Raven, I didn't even know you liked sweet things," Beast boy commented, seeing her strawberry and vanilla marble cake.
"I'm making an exception," she muttered, taking a small bite.
"It is nice to have us all sitting down and enjoying the sweets and tea," Starfire smiled.
"It's called a tea party," Sunburst muttered. "My team tries to have it at least once a month."
"It's actually a lot of fun," Chance smiled. "Plus we get closer and our teamwork gets better because we're spending time together."
"Oh yes, this is a wonderful time," Starfire smiled.
"Yeah, this is rather nice," Robin agreed.
"We defeated the bad guy and we get cake afterwards. Not bad," Cyborg nodded.
"The only thing that would make this perfect is Cam and Matt," Sunburst sighed, taking a bite of her cake.
"Don't worry, we'll find them soon," Chance smiled.
"Yeah, I mean, they found the disturbance this year, right?" Robin smiled. "They gotta show up at some time."
"They can't stay hidden forever," Beast boy agreed
"Yeah…but Chance showed up at the top of the mountain with a twisted ankle, and Mariana was in the middle of a desert," Sunburst sighed.
"Master Time could make us appear anywhere he wanted," Mariana realized. "He could make Matt appear in the middle of the ocean and cause him to drown while ruining his mechanical body."
"But, what would be a good place for Cam?" Chance asked. "I mean, he has Beast Boy's shape shifting powers."
"He does?" Beast Boy gasped. "Awesome!"
"Yeah, but he has a time limit for how long he can stay in animal form," Sunburst announced. "He wouldn't be able to cross an ocean, or get off a mountain, or cross the desert in enough time."
"Don't worry, we'll find them, and get them back safe and sound," Robin assured her.
"Alright father," Sunburst smiled.
"Okay, don't call our Robin that, it's so weird!" Beast Boy cried. "I mean, seriously! You're the same age! It's a little freaky!"
"I'll try," Sunburst laughed, before taking a bite of her cake.