Show me the man you honor,

And I will know what kind of man you are

-Thomas Carlyle

Robin saw his mentor on the screen and smiled "Of course"

Raven reread the line several times and a grin broke over her stoic face.

Starfire floated in her room and smiled at the parchment in her hand.

Cyborg listened for a moment before saying "Like I'd miss that party!"

Beast Boy felt only an overwhelming sense of dread "Something bad is going to happen…"

Beast Boy walked into the Main room to see no one "G-Guys?" the ominous feeling was twisting his gut to pieces, he looked on the calendar and saw the only thing written for that date Beast Boy-16th birthday "They left?" the youngest member whispered in disbelief, he rushed around the tower to see nothing of theirs in the rooms. He was left alone in the tower. The only hero in Jump City. He gulped as the tower's alarm rang.

Robin, now Nightwing smiled at Batman "It's been a long six years…I'll be going back to Jump" he clasped forearms with the other hero and hopped onto a black bike that roared to life as he flew out of the Batcave.

Raven looked at the reformed land of Azerath and her mother who held her close "Good bye mom, I'm heading back to Jump now, don't worry I'll visit" her mother's teary eyes nodded and a portal opened beneath her feet.

Starfire watched her brother and his wife walk with a little girl between them and smiled in joy she stepped onto the ship and waved her parents farewell as she once again traveled to Earth.

Cyborg watched his dad put the final screw in place for the machine, a project that was the accumulation of his life's work into one functioning piece. He said his farewells and drove back to Jump in his beloved car.

As he drove into Jump a large crowd surrounded the park and Nightwing stopped to see what it was. A ship landed lightly and Starfire hopped out screaming "HELLO EARTH! IT HAS BEEN FAR TOO LONG!"

Cyborg stepped out of the T-car "Star? Is that you?"

She hugged the metal man and a black portal opened, Raven stepped out "What is everyone doing here?"

Nightwing shrugged "I just got back and saw this group of people, decided I should check it out."

Cyborg's face got tight "What do you mean 'just got back'? weren't you here?"

"No, I was in Gotham with Batman for the past six years…" they chatted a bit more and came to the realization that they all left the same day.

Starfire tilted her head "Then who has been watching Jump?"

Nightwing gasped "We left Beast Boy alone!"

As they rushed to the Tower they saw lasers follow them, each thrummed with power until they reached the door and opened it with a DNA scan, a lady in a lab coat scowled at them and brushed past them before taking the underground tunnel away from the tower.

Star stared "Who was the unpleasant lady?"

Cy shrugged "My guess would be a doctor…WHAT!?" he screamed and rushed up the stairs three at a time to see what had happened. The main room was seemingly untouched save for a pillow and blanket on the couch.

Nightwing took a deep breath "Alright, it looks like he called in some of the others to help him out, they probably didn't have enough room for everyone…" a slight scrape against the tile alerted them a second before it hit them.

A large reptilian tail slammed into them and pinned them to the wall and dozens of hisses scared them, Cyborg caught a glimpse of a tail and realized what it was "CLOSE YOUR EYES! IT'S A MEDUSA!"

A rasping voice sounded "Not Medussssa, a gorgon, a creature that huntsssss with it'sssss eyesssss"

Raven snarled "Okay, Beast Boy let us down"

He hissed back "Right after you look into my eyesss"

Nightwing barked "Stand down! We're your friends!"

A clawed hand wrapped around his throat and he grunted in pain as the gorgon continued, voice filled with wrath "Friends don't leave friends to hold off the legions of people trying to tear the city down alone!" and he flung them out of the window and towards the bay.

Raven and Star reacted fast and managed to grab the other two before heading to the city. As they landed Raven groaned "Alright, that has never happened before"

Cy sarcastically snapped "What? Beast Boy turning into a mythical creature, him getting that angry, or him actually threatening-no, trying, to kill his friends!"

She calmly shook her head "No-well, that too, but that he managed to beat and restrain us all in less then a second. I think we may want to talk to the mayor…"

Nightwing shrugged "Sound's good. Let's go" as they walked to City Hall none of them could ignore the hate filled stares that the people gave them, from common thug to people in suits that cost more than a Ferrari. All of them glared, even the secretary who let them see the glaring mayor.

She took a deep breath and watched them neutrally as she stood from her chair, a middle age woman with red hair in a black woman's suite held out a hand "Hello Titans, I'm Mayor Dawn what can I do for you?"

Nightwing stared "What happened? We've been treated like the plague!"

Dawn sat back in her chair and stared at them with the same amount of distaste of a person who found a body in their ice cream tub "Because you are traitors" she ended every word with a snarl. "You and your merry band of assholes left him to fend for the city by himself…and he shattered himself to do it" she held her hands together so tightly that blood seeped past her manicured nails.

Cyborg felt the pangs of guilt heavily "What happened?"

The Mayor motioned them to take a seat on the sofa across her desk "For a total of seventeen months this city was under the control of villains"

Starfire opened her mouth but the Mayor continued on "We couldn't get word out and the police force was obliterated or locked away. Beast Boy single handedly saved the city…but he paid a heavy price. That was right after you left and he's always been there for this city."

The group gazed around the office to see various photos of the green changeling, various awards, interviews. Most were of him in the hospital, but one was the previous mayor shaking hands with Dawn. Nightwing pointed to it "What happened to Mayor Joyce?"

Dawn stared at the picture in silence for a long moment "After you left and the city came under siege she decided not to run for reelection" she picked up a remote and turned on the TV.

Mayor Joyce stood in front of a podium, she was the one that assembled the Titans, gave them the resources and faith that 5 teens could watch over the city. The elder woman stared sorrowfully out across the crowd "My friends, I have made a mistake. four years ago I entrusted the safety of this city to the Teen Titans. I don't know why but all but Beast Boy have abandoned us as of last year. I would have him here with me but he is undergoing surgery to remove the seven bullets from his chest, three were lodged in his heart." the former Titans gasped while the crowd, already knowing just nodded, "My mistake cost the people of this city dearly…to each and every person in Jump City" the small woman stepped away and bowed until her head hit the edge of the stand "I am sorry, please accept the apologies from the deepest recesses of my heart." she lifted her head "To keep this from happening again I am issuing Order 855-'Hereby all defenses of the city are to be under the control of the Titan Beast Boy''' The applause was deafening "and I will not seek reelection after this term. I-I hope that all of us can make it through this time and into better days"

Dawn turned off the TV and turned to them "IF you decide to stay in this city I suggest you talk to the police, get a scanner and try to patch things up with Garfield. Who knows what ditch you might end up in otherwise. Now if you'll excuse me I have a meeting with the chief of police."

They quietly stepped out to see a tall black man, his uniform crisp and pressed with his back straight and his hat under his arm showing off his scarred face, over his left eye was a deep gouge and a cut from the corner of his mouth on the right side back to his ear, his lack of hair let the former Titans see three distinct marks running straight up the back of his head. He nodded grimly and stood pulling on his blue hat, the numerous medals and awards shining and jingling across his torso as he walked past them.

Nightwing stared at the officers, some he recognized from his prior times here, but even then they were changed. Hardened. A large white board proclaimed "DEAD HOUR 17:00- 7:00" he walked up and rang the little bell and an officer saw them and scowled "What the Hell do you want?" he hissed.

Cyborg stepped forward to stall any arguments "We need a scanner…we wanna help out"

With a growl the officer stalked away and was replaced with the chief, the man they had seen only a few moments ago-how he beat them there was a mystery.. He held out a hand stiffly "My name is Gregory Law, I understand you have business here" his voice was deep and restrained, but not unkind just reluctantly neutral.

Raven nodded and answered for the group "We want to help. We were unaware that we all were leaving, it was a mistake we are not making again."

Law stared at them pointedly and even the goth started to squirm. He took the device from his underling and held it in his hands while pinning them with that same glare "Tell me what you plan to do."

Never once did the thought of lying cross their minds, Nightwing gritted his teeth "We want to fix this-"

"Then go to Hell." Law's gaze turned into a basilisk glare "you can't fix it. You left him in the worst possible place. You fucked over my city because you didn't want to be here" Starfire opened her mouth but his glare shut her up faster than Beast Boy had taken them down at the tower "Now, unless you can honestly give me a better reason I will execute you for treason." the chill that came over them had nothing to do with the fall weather.

Nightwing stared at his boots for a moment "I can't live with good conscience if one of my friends dies because I wasn't there to help him."

Law closed his eyes "Then you're too late. He's been dead several times, each time he comes back something else comes with him. The first time he came back he could change faster, then creatures that were amalgamations, and after dying thirty something times….well, it's better if you don't ever find out."

Cyborg collapsed onto a nearby chair and held his head in his hands "My best bud…died?" he whispered to himself as tears started to fall.

One of the officers shouted "If he was your buddy then why the fuck did you leave?!" and several others shouted their agreement until Law leveled his eyes on them and they stopped leaving the traitors to wallow in their thoughts.

Law slid the scanner across the counter and advised "Go back to the tower, Garfield should be gone but Amanda will be there, she may be able to help." and he walked back to his office getting ready for the next crime in this city overrun with it "…if you survive"

They took Law's advice and went back to the Tower to meet this Amanda. As Nightwing knocked on the door a faint "Be right there" was heard and small foot steps before the door slid open to reveal a surprise. A little girl, maybe seven years old tops wearing a shirt that reached her knees with the words "I'm taking back control with my knuckles" across the back she scratched her head that set off the long golden trails of hair wagging and she looked at them with piercing emerald eyes "Who are you?" the sunlight gave her a radiant aura-untouchability in child form.

Cyborg knelt "We used to live here"

As he finished speaking the barrel of a Walther P22 pressed against his upper lip, the girl snarled "Go away! You have no idea how sad you made Daddy!" Cyborg stepped back as Raven stepped forward and tried to wrap the gun with her powers only to have the girl step of and press the barrel into her stomach "Use your powers and I WILL put a hole in you" the little girl's eyes held a harshness that let the Titans know she wasn't lying.

A voice from behind asked "Who is it Amanda?"

She called back without taking her eyes off the group "It's the jerks who left daddy!"

The voice sounded very surprised "Well, well, let's be good hosts then. And I don't think your dad would like it if he heard you call them jerks" and the character stepped around the corner, the black suit was accented by the silver belt, thigh holsters and gauntlets and gloves and the red nanofibers peeking between the silver and the multiple red Xs across his chest, arms and on the white skull mask he had in his hands. For the first time the group saw Red X without his mask, soft teal eyes were framed by close cropped brown hair and a self confident smirk.

As Nightwing got into a fighting stance yet another voice sounded from behind the corner, a very familiar voice "Why look, little Robin and his band of marry misfits are back"

Starfire gasped "Slade" and indeed the man did walk around the corner, staring them down with his only eye.

He took a few steps forward before Amanda skipped towards him and threw her arms around her waist and looked up at him with those huge green eyes "Uncle Slade, when is Daddy getting back?"

Slade patted the girl's back "Dead hour is from 5 P.M. to 7 A. M. today" her eyes lit up and she raced up the stares with X following her closely. Slade turned back towards the group "You might as well come up, there is much to explain and very little time"

Raven lifted a brow and answered for the group "Quite"

Slade leaned back on the kitchen counter after he put a meatloaf into the oven, Red sat on the counter and Amanda rushed down the hall, Slade gestured towards the kitchen table where the Titans sat. "Alright this will take just up until he gets back so I have to make this quick-"

Amanda rushed in slightly hurried and spewed "Daddy's on his way!"

Red swallowed uncomfortably as he glanced at the remains window "He's early" he chuckled as he imagined himself flying through the broken glass.

Slade, Red and Amanda stood between the Titans and the door that slid open to reveal Garfield.

He was changed, the first real look they got at him confirmed that. Everything about him was different, the shoes and gloves he once wore were replaced with blackened steel boots and gauntlets folded into layered greaves with a stylistic hydra trailing up until his knees where the metal stopped and was replaced by dark green, not a forest green but a malevolent sickly green that made the Titans think of poison and caustic acids, his shirt used this same color to sweep up into a malevolent glaring skull surrounded by black, he also wore a jacket, a black long sleeved split tail silk coat that had been rolled up to his elbows for the gauntlets.

But the most changed was his face. Once short green hair now covered his eyebrows and ears before trailing down to the collar of his jacket, his face had dozens of scars and three piercing across the bottom of his lips, three bars, two started at the corner of his mouth and ended short enough so another bar could rest atop with the ball ends resting comfortably. And his eyes, God in heaven, they beckoned the primal fear of demons even in Raven, his right eye was the same shade of green but the left, the left was something else, three smaller eyes made a tilted triangle of a burning green, like her father's only less sighted about the value of pawns. He watched for a moment before moving to a recliner that faced towards the kitchen and sitting, pulling a foot over his knee and steepleing his fingers.

Slade stepped in front of the group "I know you don't want them here, but I have a good reason"

"Naturally" Gar's voice was too deep and gravelly for his frame. He rubbed lightly on a circle of scar tissue around his neck and stood allowing Amanda to rush and latch onto his waist. Gar had gained a foot in the six years, now he was only just shorter than Cyborg. Gar sat again with his daughter in his lap before motioning Slade to go ahead.

Slade, X and Amanda released their pent breaths, good, he wasn't going to kill them. Not yet. Slade offered a loaf of bread that Gar took with a nod of thanks before biting into. Slade leaned back onto the counter before turning to the Titans "You might want to go back to your old rooms, this is a private conversation"

The complaint on Nightwing's lips died when he saw the quartet of eyes on his former friends face roll onto him with all the care of a vulture picking at a carcass.

X was waiting right outside the common room he jerked his chin towards the roof and Nightwing nodded, the group sat looking up at the stars that dotted the night sky in silence until their host broke it "Gar's been through some tough shit since you guys abandoned him" Night opened his mouth but the glare from X stopped him "I'll tell you just so you don't ask him and get yourself butchered…just know that this is a brief overview, to not get killed in the long run…that would take more than a night"

First things first- he hates you. Like, to the point where I cannot even begin to imagine how much anger he has towards you and your merry band of jack-offs here.

I guess I should start at the beginning. Right after you left a huge number of… well, I guess you could call them super-super-villains came and took over. We're talking the worst group of people that ever existed. They took over the city and commissioned a hunt. Every hero and cop, half of the force got killed the first day. Gar was the last hero in the city and they cut off his head in a public execution. Three days later he was back. Seventeen months later he overthrew them. While the police were rebuilding from the three remaining members he took over the entire city. He became god for us poor mortals. Red-X laughed a bit as he watched the reactions of the Titans. He stepped in and practically remade the city. But he sacrificed a lot. Any questions?

Raven nodded "What about the girl? Where does she come in?"

With a malicious laugh the man stared deeply into the violet eyes Trust me, that is one vine you don't want to see the top of.

Cyborg shook his head "Even if we don't want to we have the responsibility to"

I don't understand but whatever. Right after the seventeen months Gar was more beast than man, Hell he spent most of those living darting from one shadow to another, drinking from puddles and destroying entire gangs like you or I would blow down a straw wall. Her parents had died and he was in the hospital. The old mayor thought it would be a good idea for them to bond, to give him something personal to protect and something for her to grow up with.

Starfire asked simply "Did it work? When I saw them in the room of living he did not seem happy to have her around him…"

X stared out over the bay toward the city let me put it too you this way. If you attack the city he will stop you, if you hurt someone in his 'inner circle'- I use the term loosely he doesn't have anybody really close to him- so me, Slade and a few other people, he will grind your bones to dust. But, if you attack her. X shuddered there hasn't been somebody stupid enough to do it. But I can say that every bit of his power would go to ending your miserable existence, and make no mistake- a miserable existence it would be.

The next day was tense, the Titans tried to avoid Gar, who was the one that had been sleeping on the couch. 13 more seconds to save a life. When the alarm went off two beacons flashed, one in the north part of the city and the other on the west near the docks, the Commander of City Defense ordered "Titans take the north, I'll take the docks, Slade, X, watch Amanda" from his back two gigantic bat wing sprouted and like a demon he took to the air.

The Titans found out how much time had changed the world. They couldn't stand against the simple thugs that had robbed the bank, there they lay against the bank's outside walls bloody and battered when a mind shattering roar blasted the area, one of the thugs screamed "SHIT! Get the case!" and from said case a rocket launcher came. A narrow black tube with a oversized missile was pointed at the sky when an eclipse seemed to cover the city, a shadow carried on by a vicious draft of wind and a howl from the darkest depths. They looked up and saw it. Lording over the city was a dragon, dark green scales traced with streaks of red descended on them, the head, far to big for even the enormous body, let out another breaking torrent of a roar and the missile flew straight and true at the moon-eater.

Jawzahr, immortal bringer of the eclipse fell in two pieces, the body and the head, the rocket became a executioner's blade-separating the body at the neck. The robbers cheered as the body started to decay instantly, the former heroes let out a despair filled groan. Until the bats came. The decaying body broke into bats, thousands upon thousands of bats whipped around the buildings as they descended until just above the ground they slammed together and before them stood the survivor.

The trio of eyes rolled before they zeroed in on the guns. "You'll have to do better than that"