A circular portal opened up in the middle of an icy tundra. The snow was coming down softly on the baron plane that out stretched before the portal. Three figures emerged from the glowing blue-ish black abyss. One was a medium height dark skinned man with a musical horn in one hand; he was wearing a blue costume. One of the others was a very tall and very muscular fair skinned man wearing what looked like a military winter uniform with a big red star emblem in the centre of his chest. The third man was on fire, literally his skin was red hot and steamed as the snow landed on his body.

"Oh man this is cold!" Herald complained as he grabbed his body in a vain attempt to warm himself up. "I can already tell I'm not going to like this."

"Excuse me this is my country you are bad mouthing." Red Star said in his thick Russian accent.

Herald chuckled nervously. "I meant no disrespect big guy honestly!"

Herald, Red Star and Hotspot had been a team for about three weeks along with Bushido. After Changeling had become the leader of the Titans he asked the four men to work together as a team. Unlike the other Titan teams that were housed in Towers spread out across America this team was meant to travel the globe and lend a hand to anyone who needed assistance, all four men agreed and had enjoyed working together over the past few weeks.

"It was a shame Bushido couldn't come." Hotspot added, trying to bring the attention away from Heralds blunder.

"Yeah but his family needed him so what can you do?" Herald responded with a shrug.

"Come friends. We must move quickly before anyone is alerted to our presence." Red Star stated firmly.

The three men made their way across the icy scenery; leaving three sets of foot prints, or puddles in Hotspots case, in their wake. After walking for about twenty minutes the three men came to the location where the supposed sighting of Brother Blood had been.

"I don't see anything?" Herald stated. There was nothing there, no trees, no rocks, no buildings only snow.

"Is it me or does this place look like it may have been cleared for some reason?" Hotspot added cautiously. "Something feels wrong…"

"I do not like this comrades." Red Star said suddenly. "We should leave now and return with more Titans."

"Agreed." Herald said quickly before blowing on his horn to summon a portal to safety. All three men entered the portal quickly without looking back. None of them saw the man in the huge red armour watching them from afar.

TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT

Raven awoke late that morning. She sat up in her bed and looked around. Lying comfortably beside her was her new husband who was softly snoring away close to her. She smiled and brought her left hand up to her face so that she could see it. She smiled at the sight of the golden wedding ring on ring finger.

"You like it?" The groggy voice of her husband said from beside her.

Raven turned her head to look at the green man. "I love it." She said warmly before kissing him. "But what are you going to do about yours? You can't wear it when you shape shift." She added sorrowfully.

Changeling grinned. "Didn't I tell you?" Raven cocked an eyebrow and shook her head. "Billy's wedding present was to get this specially made so it will shift with me!" The green man said happily.

Raven smiled. "That really was very sweet of him." She said happily before kissing her husband again. Raven lay back down and snuggled into her husband. "Hey Gar?" She said softly. "When you said Melvin could stay with us you meant it right?"

"Of course I did." Changeling replied warmly.

"I really want her to stay but she's not even ten yet, how are we supposed to look after her?"

"Don't worry baby bird." He said dreamily. "I have a feeling we'll do just fine."

TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT

"Fiancé Richard!" Starfire yelled angrily as she strode into the room she shared with Nightwing. "Where were you today?"

"I'm sorry Kori but I had some business to take care of." Nightwing replied defensively.

"More important than your friend's wedding?" She shrieked.

"Kori we're League members now and we have to take things more seriously now. We aren't just Titans anymore."

"Just Titans? What do you mean just Titans?" The Tameranian growled.

"Kori listen the Titans are good and all but there not the League. That's why we're not Titans anymore. You understand that right?" Nightwing asked slowly. Starfire's anger seemed to leave her.

"I do understand that I suppose. But that still doesn't explain why you were not at the wedding of friends Changeling and Raven?"

"I had to do some work with Batman." Nightwing responded. "He's been showing me the ropes around here so I repaid the favour by doing an Intel retrieval mission with him last night."

"Was the intel at least useful fiancé Richard?"

"It was… but you're not going to like it." Nightwing stated. "It was about Changeling."

TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT

It was about midday when the newlyweds entered the common room. The room looked immaculately clean which was amazing considering the mess it was in last night, the two looked around the room and saw Rita and Jericho still cleaning. In the kitchen Billy and Mento were leaning against the counter top holding their heads and complaining about their splitting headaches brought on by their hangovers; Mr Wykyd was handing them aspirins and glasses of water in an attempt to help. On the floor by the windows Kole was playing happily with Melvin.

"Auntie Raven, uncle Gar!" Melvin cheered as she ran over to the two and hugged them both tightly.

"Hey there short stuff!" Changeling replied happily as he picked her on his hip. "How are you today?"

"Awesome!" Melvin cheered.

Raven made her way over to the struggling men in the kitchen. "Mento let me help you." She said softly as she lifted her hands to his head. A light blue light began to emanate from her palms and seep into her father-in-laws head. Instantly Mento felt his head ache fade away.

"My my isn't that a great power." Mento chuckled warmly. "Thank you my dear that was very kind of you."

"What are daughters-in-law for?" Raven replied happily. Rita squeaked in delight as Raven said the words 'daughter-in-law'.

"Hey err Raven?" Billy asked quietly from beside her. "I don't suppose you could maybe help me out a little as well please?"

Raven smiled and repeated the healing process on the head of Billy Numerous. "That's a thank you for our wedding present." She said warmly.

"Aww shucks Raven, I just thought it'd be a nice gesture is all."

"Well it was very sweet of you regardless."

"What wedding present was that?" Mento asked.

Raven explained to everyone what Billy had done for them.

"Aww Billy you big softy!" Mr Wykyd signed.

"That was indeed very sweet of you Billy." Rita added.

"He's a good friend isn't he?" Changeling added happily whilst he continued to bounce Melvin on his hip. The act did not go unnoticed by anyone in the room.

"So Melvin when do you have to go home?" Rita asked softly.

The little girl pouted. "The monks are coming to get me later on tonight." She said sadly. Changeling shared a glance with his wife, they both nodded.

"Why don't you stay with us?" Changeling said happily.

"REALLY?" Melvin and Kole both shouted happily and in perfect unison.

"Yeah why not? We've got plenty of room and I'm sure this place is a lot nicer and safer than the monastery." Changeling replied.

"What do you say Melvin?" Raven said, her monotone threatening to run away and never return. "Do you want to come live with us?"

"YES!" Melvin shouted happily, pumping her fists into the sky as she celebrated still in the green man's arms.

TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT

"Why not!" Herald yelled at his fiery friend. The three men were standing in one of the Titans safe houses that they had claimed as their base of operations.

"I don't know!" Hotspot yelled back at his friend. "I just can't get a signal. It's like we're being jammed."

"Keep trying please. We must ask for assistance before returning to the clearing to investigate." Red Star added.

"Oh I don't think you'll be reaching anyone…" A voice from behind stated eerily sickeningly. The three Titans froze, they all recognised the voice. They turned slowly to see Brother Blood standing before them with a small army of his cult followers behind him. Brother Blood was in his usual robes and his usual creepy grin was still plastered on his pointy face. His cult followers were all wearing battle armour similar to his robes. "You should have been more cautious." Brother Blood said sinisterly. "None of you seemed to notice an associate of mine watching you on your earlier field trip."

"How did you find us?" Hotspot demanded.

"Mind your manners please." Blood calmly demanded.

"Make me!" Hotspot screamed before throwing a stream of fire from his hands aimed directly at Blood. The robed man effortlessly dodged, his followers quickly sprang into action. Armed to the teeth with spears, swords, kunai and other melee weapons the followers quickly began to clash with the three Titans. Hotspot and Herald were fighting together to take on the well trained followers and were making slow progress in defeating them.

Red Star was working on his own and was having similar success but in the end he was sure that they would not win this. The cultists were skilled that was true, but they lacked the powers of himself or Hotspot or the hand-to-hand skills of Herald but they did have over whelming numbers on their side.

The room they were in was large which did not bode well for the Titans. There were only three of them but at least thirty cultists.

Soon the numbers game began to really take its toll on the three friends. Herald was quickly growing tired and was beginning to make mistakes. A misjudged punch here and an improper block there had really cost the dimension jumping Titan. Hotspot had been doing well until one of the cultists had had a lucky shot and buried a kunai into his upper back. The flaming hero grunted in pain whenever he moved until Herald yanked the blade from his body but the momentary lapse in concentration cost both of them and now they were both sprawled out on the ground panting and groaning.

Red Star was still going strong when his friends had been subdued despite his exhaustion, but that didn't last long as he too soon joined them on the floor after taking a well-aimed shot from the hilt of a sword to his temple.

"Pathetic." Blood stated amusement clear in his voice. "I thought you would ha-" Blood was interrupted as two of his followers fell to the floor clearly unconscious.

"You should not have assaulted my friends." A Japanese accented voice came from the doorway.

"Am I glad to see you?" Hotshot grunted, but still showing the relief at seeing his friend and the fourth member of their team.

"Bushido." Blood growled. Brother Blood was now standing in the centre of the large room between Bushido and the three other Titans.

"Red Star?" Bushido asked with a smile.

Red Star grinned. "Titans, Go!" He yelled in his thick Russian accent.

The battle continued but soon the results came to a similar end. The four heroes had managed to thin the numbers quite well but now the four were cornered together. So why were they grinning?

"It's been a blast Blood." Hotspot said with a grin. "We'll forward your regards to the boss man."

Blood looked on confused. "You four are going nowhere!" He growled.

He was interrupted by the sound of a horn. Suddenly all four Titans were gone. Blood growled again before yelling at his cultists. "You fools! They wanted to be cornered together so that they could escape!"

TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT

The four heroes appeared in the middle of a field in what appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. The grass was very green and the air had a slight chill to it.

"What the fuck?" Hotspot asked confused. The four heroes were tired and sore and were in no mood for this. "Herald where did you take us?"

"I don't know." He answered honestly. "I had to get us out of there quickly, I didn't pick a destination just sorta blew my horn."

Hotspot just grumbled inaudibly with many profanities. Bushido pulled out his communicator but it was still jammed for some reason. He could however activate its built in GPS so that he could figure out where they were.

"According to the communicator we are in Norfolk, England…"

Silence.

"HERALD!" The three Titans yelled angrily, Herald just chuckled nervously.

"Woops…"

"Woops? Woops?" Hotspot began yelling before Red Star placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down please friend." He said slowly. "At least we got away."

"Yes but there are no Titans Towers in England nor are there any safe houses." Bushido informed. "The nearest safe house is in Paris, France so we shall have to make our way there."

Hotspot just grumbled before agreeing.

TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT

Changeling and Raven were lying on their bed happily and comfortably. Raven was snuggled up close to her husband with her head on his chest as they watched a movie on the TV that Changeling had put in their room soon after they moved in together. They had spent all afternoon training hard after Steve and Rita had left. Changeling had spent a lot of time training with Jericho so that he could learn to use his new Shale body. The training was long and hard and he had the bruises to prove it. He had then spent time working on partial transformations with Kole before sparring with Billy Numerous. Raven and Mr Wykyd had been training with each other as they both use very similar abilities. The whole time Melvin had watched on in awe and even had Bobby, her not-so-imaginary-giant-monstrous-teddy-bear, spar with Jericho in his Shale body.

It was clear to everyone that Melvin enjoyed being in the tower but she wasn't even quite ten years old yet so it wouldn't be right to train her too hard or put her into battle so Changeling had made her the first ever 'Titan in Training' and had even given her a communicator. It was also clear to everyone that Changeling and Raven were obviously Melvin's favourites and that the newlyweds were obviously the most protective of her.

But now the couple were alone, it was late in the afternoon but they were tired and so decided to relax for a bit and watch one of their favourite movies 'Reign of Fire' with Christian Bale and Mathew Mcconaughey. Raven was on the edge of dozing off as Changeling softly stroked her hair with the arm he had lazily draped around her shoulders.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The married couple both groaned. "Yes?" Changeling called out.

"Boss we've got an issue." Kole's voice said through the door.

"Ok, come on in Kole."

Kole hesitantly made her way into their room. It wasn't because Raven had this thing about people coming into her room; she had lost that habit when she was a teenager and before the green man moved in with her.

"You ok Kole?" Raven asked with a quirked eyebrow. "You look nervous."

Kole cleared her throat before speaking. "Um we just had a call from Starfire." Kole began. "It seems that the Justice League did some digging and found out something about Changeling but Nightwing didn't tell Starfire what." Kole paused before looking at the ground. "Anyway they're coming down here in an hour or something to talk to you about it."

The room was awkwardly silent.

"Bastards." Changeling growled. He breathed in deep before addressing Kole again. "Kole Gather everyone in the common room. You want to know about my past? Then I'll tell you. I want you all to hear the real truth not the basterdisation of my past the League will tell you."

"You sure Gar?" Raven asked with obvious concern in her voice. The green man just nodded in affirmation.

20 minutes later.

The Dodge City Titans were all sitting in the common room. Changeling and Raven were sitting in the middle of the couch with Melvin sitting very close to Raven. Billy was sitting a little further down on the couch; Jericho and Mr Wykyd were sitting on the other side of the married couple with Kole sitting cross-legged by their feet. Changeling had just finished explaining that the League were on their way and that he wanted to tell his story before they came down and twisted it.

"So-" Changeling began but was cut off by Billy.

"Boss man I think we should all tell our stories. Ya'll agree?" Billy asked, lacking much of his usual almost insufferable vigour. Kole nodded happily, whilst Wykyd and Jericho reluctantly agreed.

"Melvin can you do me a big favour and go play somewhere else please? This is going to be too much for you I think." Raven said sweetly.

"OK." Melvin said happily, she may have been young but she respected Ravens judgement enough to know that if she said that she shouldn't hear something then she really shouldn't hear it. "I'll go find Bobby!" And with that she waltzed out of the room.

When she was out Changeling took a breath ready to begin his story but was once again interrupted by Billy. "I'll start." He said confidently but sombrely. Changeling just nodded calmly. "Right so my real name is William T. Shaw. I was born in Mobil, Alabama. My mum was a really sick lady and had been her whole life. The doctors told her that she could still have kids safely despite her health conditions. They were wrong." Billy paused. "My mother died a few days after I was born. After that my dad raised me." Billy looked at the sad faces of his odd but amazing family. He sighed deeply. "When I was young I had this condition called schizophrenia, multiple personality syndrome. I had it real bad; when I was about ten I had about nine voices in my head and a few of them had a lot more control than I would have liked and could even sorta 'take over' and talk for me." Billy paused again. "Anyway my daddy was a real smart man, he was a mathematician. He knew absolutely nothing about the human body or brain but he was determined to fix me so he built this machine. The machine was built to pinpoint the real me and then 'lock me' in the driver's seat and silence the other voices. The machine worked perfectly, it did exactly what it was supposed to and now the man sitting before you is the real William T. Shaw." Billy paused again and seemed to struggle with continuing but pushed on anyway. "Anyway my daddy wasn't so pleased I guess. I figure he liked one of my voices more than me so when he realised I was the real me and was the one who got locked in the driver's seat he took it real hard. Anyway I was at school a few days later and that was when I discovered my powers, the machine had given them to me. So anyway I ditched school that day and ran home to show my daddy. When I got home I found him sitting on the couch with a gun in one hand and a hole in his head." Billy paused when he heard Kole gasp. He looked up and saw that all the boys plus Raven were sitting there with their jaws open. "Anyway long story short I had nowhere to go after that until the H.I.V.E academy took me in and ya'll know the rest."

The common room was deadly silent.

"Billy you don't blame yourself do you?" Changeling asked seriously.

Billy chuckled sombrely. "Nah. I used to but I realised it weren't my fault."

The room was silent for another minute.

"Well my story is pretty quick." Kole said to break the silence. "I was abandoned at birth but don't know why. I bounced around foster homes for a bit until I heard a story about a caveman living way up north so I decided to go check it out and met Gnaark." Kole finished with a shrug. "That's all there is to my story."

"You all know my story." Raven added. "I'm half demon, daughter of the inter-dimensional demon lord Trigon the Terrible whom I defeated on my sixteenth birthday with the help of Gar and the other founding five of the Titans."

"I'll go next." Jericho signed but seemed to shudder as he prepared himself. "I just ask that you don't judge me too harshly."

"Come on J-man we're a family." Changeling said comfortingly.

"Yeah we'd stick with you even if you were a mass murderer." Billy said just as comfortingly.

Mr Wykyd put his hand on Jericho's shoulder for support.

"I love you no matter what." Kole said warmly.

Jericho sighed deeply. "Ok well I was born mute after my father tried messing with my genetics when I was in my mother's womb with my twin sister. My sister came out as the perfect super soldier whilst I was born with my powers. My mum was so angry with my father that she took me and ran away." Jericho paused. "You all know my father and you all hate him almost as much as I do… My name is Joey Wilson and my father is Slade Wilson."

The heroes gasped. Jericho looked down looking deeply upset. He waited for yelling and screaming but it never came. He thanked the heavens that it was Changeling in charge now and not Nightwing.

"You're not the only one to have an evil father Jericho." Raven said warmly.

"Yeah dude and if you thought we'd be angry at you then you were seriously mistaken." Changeling added with a calm smile on his face.

Jericho heaved a sigh of relief but then felt Mr Wykyd's hand on his shoulder. He looked over to his dark friend just as Wykyd began signing. "You are definitely not the only one to have an evil father my friend." Wykyd looked around before continuing. "My story is similar to Raven's in some ways and Jericho's in others. Similarly to Jericho my birth was an experiment to see what would happen if my father mated with a human, and it's similar to Raven's in the way that my father is a creature of evil and darkness." Wykyd paused again and stretched his fingers nervously before he continued signing. "This may be hard to believe but what I'm about to tell you is the truth and Raven can confirm that… My real name is Wesley Dracula…"

Time seemed to stand still.

"Did you say… Dracula?" Billy breathed exasperatedly.

"Yes."

"As in… the vampire?" Changeling added.

"Yes."

"Holy…" Billy stated.

"Fucking…" Changeling added.

"Shit…" They stated in unison.

Changeling began to grin. "That aint nothing to be ashamed about Wykyd."

"Yeah man you're still my brother!" Billy added happily.

"You're not your father." Jericho signed happily.

"Neither are you yours, my friend." Wykyd said in reply to Jericho.

All eyes in the room moved to their leader. Changeling sighed when he saw that they were waiting.

"Ok but you guys aint gonna like this." He warned. His wife took his hand and gave it a loving and reassuring squeeze. "Ok well my name is Garfield Mark Logan and… I wasn't born this way."

"You weren't born green?" Kole asked; she failed to hide her shock.

"No. I had tanned peachy skin, blond hair and blue eyes… in fact I kinda looked a bit like Jericho." Changeling said. "My parents were these amazingly talented geneticists who travelled the world trying to save people by finding cures to what were supposedly incurable diseases and they were really good at it. When I was born they were living in a small tribe in Africa trying to find a cure to a disease called Sakutia. Sakutia was also known as Green Fever and it was a disease that was 100% fatal to humans but was carried by animals who were seemingly immune to the disease so my parents were trying to use animal DNA to find a cure to this disease." Changeling paused. "When I was younger I was like every other kid out there, all I wanted to do was impress my parents. They used to collect green animals because they held the Sakutia disease so when I saw a green monkey roaming around in the jungle I didn't think 'Oh I shouldn't go near that coz I could get infected' no instead for some stupid reason I decided 'Oh I should go and try to catch that monkey for mum and dad'. So that's what I tried to do and ended up getting bitten by the monkey and infected with Sakutia. I was 4 years old at the time." His teammates had been listening intently but all visibly cringed when he told him how old he was at the time. "My parents must have heard me screaming because they came running and then carried me off to their lab. I was in pain, absolute agony actually. I don't really remember what happened coz I was on the verge of passing out because of the pain. My parents injected me with this experimental serum that they had been working on coz it was my only chance to survive. The disease turned my skin green and then… I died." The Titans looked at him with rather confused for a few moments. "The disease killed me but the serum brought me back to life 2 minutes later. And then the real pain started. The serum started having some other effects on me. My ears started to grow and my teeth, finger nails and toe nails all fell out at the same time and were replaced by fangs and claws that grew into place in seconds. My head heart the worst though. As my brain changed to accommodate my animal instincts… I passed out from the pain of it all."

Changeling paused again. "So that was when I was four years old. When I was six there was this massive storm that no one saw coming. My parents and I were on a boat heading back to the village when the engine on the boat we were on gave out. Because of the storm the current was ridiculously strong. There was a fork in the river a little ways up the river and we were supposed to go down the right fork to get back to the village but the currents dragged the boat down the left fork. I was scared shitless, I had no idea what the hell was going on. Suddenly my dad turns around to me and starts telling me how much he loves me and then tells me to turn into a bird and fly up high. I thought it would be another great time to impress him so I turned into a sparrow and flew up high… and then I saw the boat go over the waterfall with them still in it. They died as soon as they hit the bottom and I saw it."

The rest of the team were in shock. Raven couldn't help but shed a few tears and it neither could Kole but she was just ridiculously sensitive anyway.

"So for the next four years I was raised as a hunter in the village where I had been born and raised. When I was ten some American dick heads turned up and killed everyone in the village. They had been sent by my uncle to get me when he had learned that I had survived. You see the thing is that my parents were very good at their jobs and had made a hell of a lot of money and my uncle decided that he wanted it. So I was dragged back to America where I was thrown in a cage in my uncles basement where I spent the next two years being beaten, starved, whipped, burned, electrocuted, cut etc. until I ran away when I was twelve and was found by the Doom Patrol and they took me in. You know the rest."

The team were in shock. How could someone so kind and loyal come from a background like that?

"H-how-" Billy began but was interrupted by the green man.

"How can I be the way I am?" He asked with a small smile and a chuckle. The entire team nodded in affirmation, apart from Raven who already knew. "Look around guys. I have a tremendous family of some of the best people this world will ever know. Plus I'm married to best woman in existence, oh err no offence Kole."

"None taken." Kole said with a small smile between sniffles.

The common room was deadly quiet.

"Guys." Changeling said grabbing everyone's attention. "This can only make us stronger, so cheer up and let's move on."

"Yeah." Billy said as he stood up and stretched. "Besides at least now Kole will stop bugging us over our pasts." He drawled in his accent trying to lighten the mood. It succeeded.

"Shut up Billy!" Kole shouted jokingly before throwing a couch pillow at the human copy machine.

"How long till the League get here?" Raven asked quietly.

"Twenty minutes or so." Changeling stated unhappily. He was not in the mood for this shit.

TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT

So I hope you all enjoyed it!

Billy and Wykyd don't have an actual backstory so I was able to go completely crazy and do whatever I wanted to so I'd really like to hear what everyone thinks about them!

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