Teen Titans – Sibling Rivalries; Severing Old Ties –

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Recap: This is a sequel of Rekindling Old Bonds; Rose is getting loose again and the fun's about to start so go read the last part or the whole thing! Not a bad way to get a head start -

CHAPTER 1: One Serious Trip

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~ I've found them! Please….turn on the link. Hurry ! ~

~ Too soon…How Nostalgic….~

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After freeing Rose and helping Slade to re – capture her (as a backstabber that he was "never" seemed to mind breaking agreements,) their leader Robin paced the floor. He was not keen on heading back to a HIVE's secret base after months of putting up a new front, protecting Jericho's safety, and of trying to let go of the well – remembered betrayal. The human side that Slade had shown them all of himself.

"We can't risk Rose knowin' we just wanna fall into her trap. She's taken a bunch of our teammates from around the globe hostage, jus' like the Brotherhood of Evil did."

"But she said, games…" Bb rubbed his chin to Cy's discernments. "Is she cracking up, maybe? Did Slade do something to her mind, like with –

"No, and if he did…it's more psychological than Terra's. Longer." Raven interjected with a shake of her skull. "Rose has been this way, maybe longer than we'd even remembered…"

"She was born during a war in Cambodia." Robin looked at her files, seeing the Bat wasn't being coy about this mess. "Her mother ran a bordello and during a covert attempt, she was taken out of the country to be, relocated to the US. The adopted couple is mentioned as "unknown..."

"They must then have been used as a cover of some sort…a way from Slade ever " Starfire concurred. "And the government must then have known about her, inherited powers from her father."

"Slade Wilson," Robin went on. "Former Team 7 operative and now, a mercenary for hire with one of the highest kill counts on the globe."

"And the JLA's problem." Cy snorted.

"They were beaten by him, though. And we succeeded them, made sure to keep Slade out of Jump for a while." Robin skimmed the data as it came. He had to thank Addie for the extra info. It would help with their mission in this case, while Jericho was busy reaching out to his sibling…

"We have to take the chance that Rose isn't doing this for some other reason, maybe to show someone else that she's not so helpless…a cry for help."

"I can find –

"No." Dick put up a palm to Raven's idea. "Any, way in and she could be planning to trap us at every turn. It's like Cy said and I agree. We can't be so trusting."

"You think she…can telepathically attack us?'" Cy blinked up from the screens to hear this paranoid dribble, though plausible. "I don't think she can't…but…"

"Anything could be the case." Robin huffed and turned from the keys. "She was trained by Slade…I wouldn't put it past a proud "hunter" like him to know an enemies' innermost weaknesses…" The boy wonder grumbled under his breath. He had one shot. One shot, and they'd be on him like flies to rhino dung. Not a great example…

"We have to contact Slade –

"NO!" The Titans flared out together at their stubborn leader.

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Robin's idea was to contact Slade and interrogate him, but Joey was against it. Even when he'd cared for his dad before, the thing about Rose losing her mind…

He wasn't sure anymore if Slade could ever be a good person, but one thing did bug him.

How guarded Grant's mind was from his powers, and how Rose seemed to be suffering.

Something wasn't right, but Robin had made it clear that he was curious to find if Slade's carelessness had led to Rose's rebirth as the Hive's leader.

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"We can draw straws –

"And we can also get shot fulla' holes." Cy shook his head, "Not happenin'."

"And as team leader, what chance can we get again if Slade won't tell us all he knows about this? If he may know something that could reset her kill – switch if there is one?... Adeline stayed with the Titans' to provide intel for Jericho's sake." Robin stated wit a pause. "Jericho; your mom is aware of your dad's jobs as a requirement. To their agreement to let you stay with the Titans in the UK. Why isn't she contacting us with any new information?"

~ She's just as concerned about Rose as anyone here, but I don't think she knew about the HIVE'S new queen coming back. Or, even why… ~ That, didn't make sense. But, with Slade's brainwashing, it could be. Yet Joey didn't feel like this was all Rose's fault.

"How can we be so sure that Brother Blood's posse isn't involved again?" Bb wondered to the blonde.

~ Rose could not have done this…~

"Joey?" Starfire brought a delicate hand to the young Titan's shoulder. He grasped it in thanks, turning to his friends.

~ I have one person who may know more than my father, about Rose's reemergence as the Hive Queen. ~

He told them telepathically. ~ A Titan in the UK right now, visiting from New Zealand; Argent. ~

The heroes looked at one another, then all eyes fell onto their leader who stepped forward. Front and center.

"We'll go with your plan, Jericho. If we don't find the answers from a fellow Titan, Slade's only a ping away."

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The trolley onwards wasn't necessary as the teens went by T – Ship to the base that the UK heroes had built up in an effort to solidify their roles as protectors. Argent had a few bases in Australia and New Zealand, London and Wales. She was either in one spot on the map or with The Herald in the other.

Speaking of…

" Cool!! Dudes, I can't believe we're back on the road! There's Big Ben! Oh Oh! Oh! It's –

"I'm going to tune him out, is that ok?"

"Raven, Beastboy. Stay focused," Robin directed his crew. "We're going to be hitting the landing point soon."

Cy whistled as they passed the base of the Titans' newest additional tower. "She's a beaut! Wow! I had no idea you lived in a castle, Joe! They decked out the turrets with a STATE OF THE ART laser system? Is that shatter proof resis –

Joey blushed as he sat with Robin and was skinny enough to not make a ruckus.

"I, for one cannot wait to see what our dear friend Argent has been "the doing" lately." Starfire smiled at the group, hoping this energy would follow them onto the battle field. Hope as Raven had proven, was a powerful sword in a perilous war like this one with the HIVE.

"Don't get too comfortable, Starfire." Raven reminded her sister of war, "Rose was trained by a deadly mercenary so we can't be too nice even if she doesn't remember anything. And the Titans in the UK were also attacked…weren't they?"

The fog cleared and Raven was correct. The once proudly standing castle that had been reconstructed to house the country's finest heroes, was totaled. A brutal fight had destroyed the walls that housed the saints of this paradise as the heroes gasped in unison.

"Jericho…" Robin looked to his dear ally. "You didn't come to us to tell us about your sister, you came to warn us about what happened to your team…Why didn –

" Incoming!!"

A boomerang of beams had tried to hit their ship square by the front, where Raven thankfully could use a force field, saving Robin and the others as she got ready to hold up another mantra to speak aloud.

"Dude! Who's shooting at us?? We're the good guys!" BB exclaimed and ducked his head, afraid to be shot at from inside his tiny seat.

"I don… ung!" Dick braced for impact. Great, they were about to hit the water…

"Hold on…. we're bein' pulled in by that beam!! I can't shake it!" Cy scrambled to find a way out, not knowing what was going to happen – besides getting captured by the same enemy that may have destroyed Joey's second crib.

"Eject us!!" Robin shouted through the comm - link in the ship's systems. It had started to crackle so Dick tugged out the unit before it could burst into a ball of sparks.

"No! Wait!" Starfire pointed to the one manipulating the red beams on the ground by the wharf.

"Argent! She is –

"Don't know, but it's fryin' up the T- Ship's system's circuits!" Cy growled and pounded the controls with a fist. "If it is her, she's gotta let off controllin' the ship or we're bein' zapped either way like a bunch of insects out here to a light... Fish in a net…. Hah… I can't…" He just had no way; her powers weren't something he COULD stop. How were they going to find Rose and the missing Titans, now?

Raven felt Cy's pain and wanted to try, anything to get them what they needed. She took in a breath and tried to start chanting.

"Azara –

" Agh!" Her seat was pushed forward by the beam, no longer keeping her in her happy place.

Red warning lights were going off.

The ship had met its maker.

Robin saw as Starfire took the plunge and tore open the ejector seat with one push from her side. She flew up and swept over to the goth New Zealand girl who looked rather distressed.

" Fellow Titan, Argent!" Starfire called out as Argent still brought the heroes into the water with her powerful attack.

"It is I; Starfire from the States that are United! We had defeated the Brotherhood of Evil together?? Why are you–

"Get back!" Argent shouted, "That ship is under attack….by…. bloody… Psimon!!" She warned with a growl, pulling with all of her strength at the reigns holding her allies hostage.

"Huh??" Star turned and saw that the hero wasn't kidding. Right on the other side of the T – ship, Psimon and a bunch of his hovering commandos were at their rear, facing Argent as she had attempted to get the Titans away from his tug and pull psychic ability.

"I shall not allow for you to win!" Star flew off to help as Psimon's goons went forth and used a ray like his to daze Kori in mid – air.

"Starfire!? Starfire! No…I'm going after –

"You'll get cooked! No way!" BB and Cy both reprimanded. Raven instead, let her dark side change the beam's course – back into the other older psychic's space!

" Gaaah !!" He riled back and seethed at the pain in his skull.

"This is pointless. Let's just get this over with." Raven dusted herself off and left her seat as Argent gained control again to save the ship from falling too hard into the water.

Raven stood in midair facing Psimon, as her power increased, turning the sky to fog and mist as she blinded the floating commandos to let Starfire go.

"AZARATH METRION... ZINTHOS!!" She shouted.

Robin helped Cy and the rest of his team to move as far away from Raven's astral form's devastating attack. Watching as the sky lit up as strikes of light and dark energy shot at the offended, striking him down in the sky as he screamed out.

Psimon never had a chance as he finally fainted, crackling energy surrounded him with Raven encasing him in a bubble of her own energy, while swiping her brow in relief that it was now over. "You won't be getting out any time soon. Trust me." Not much of a threat, but she wasn't here to….

"You…. are…too late…" Psimon chuckled, as he whispered his last farewell and miraculously vanished.

As the illusion before the empath, had burst.

Raven held her skull and looked all around. The waters were calmer now, but she and her teammates, were not. Her cloak fluttered around her as the world stood perfectly still. This, was not was not going to be an easy mission. That was a threat, but…

"He's gone…" She gasped, staring down at the Titans, knowing that Psimon's appearance had to mean something far more was coming.

Watching from the shadows, not so far away from this shoreline abode…something of that category must have not been farthest from the truth at all…She could feel it, and Raven was mostly never wrong when it came to predicting a terrible outcome.

As sometimes, she wished for once she could just let the outcome reveal itself in time…woe was she, it seemed.

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