Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. I only own my OC, John Smith

I had forgotten how beautiful the beaches of Zandia were.

Beast Boy and Cyborg splashed in the shallows, the green elf turning into an elephant now and then, to spray his friend with a jet of water from his trunk. Starfire was building what seemed like a sand castle, in a grander scale than normal. Robin was sulking, ridiculous in his bathing shorts. Raven was reading Corpus Supernaturale with great enthusiasm under the shade of her huge dark blue umbrella.

I dove under the water and relaxed, feeling the quiet and peace wash away the stress of the past weeks.

Ahhhhh. This is what I'm talking about.

I broke through the surface and swam to the shore, feeling the sand crunch under my feet.

"You should go for a swim." I told Raven, scrubbing myself with one of our towels. "The water is great."

"Grmf."

"What was that?"

"Maybe later."

I smirked and leaned over her. A few drops of water fell from my hair to her stomach.

"YOW! Bastard!"

I chuckled and tried to dodge the small magic blasts she blasted me with; no luck. The second one knocked me to my back.

I laughed and made to rise; Robin's head appeared upside-down over me. He was scowling.

Great. Now what?

"We need to talk, Smith."

"Can't it…? Oh, fine!" I got up, patted the sand away from my swimming shorts and followed him, a few feet away from the others.

"Well?" I asked him. "What is it now?"

He scowled.

"We had a vote." he replied.

"Who's 'we'?" I asked.

"We." he answered, gesturing towards the others. "We'd…well…"

I raised an eyebrow.

"It seems the majority votes that you become a Titan." Robin said quickly.

Silence.

"You're serious?" I asked, half-scowling.

"Yes."

I snorted.

"The majority." I sneered. "Let me guess. You voted 'no'."

Robin scowled.

"In fact, I didn't." he growled. "Against my better judgment, I didn't."

"Why?" I asked, surprised.

He shrugged. "You're good at what you do. And I figured, since you can't lick 'em, join 'em. Or have 'em join you."

I snorted. "How flattering. You know for a second there I was worried. I thought you liked me."

"Creepy."

"Yeah."

Silence.

"Yeah…well…" I muttered. "Who voted 'no'?"

Robin cocked his head to one side and half-smiled. "Raven, of course."

I could see that he had been building up to this. He had spat out these words as if they were supposed to cause me pain. He was probably expecting me to be stunned, then horrified, then angry.

Instead I turned to look at Raven and smiled.

"Good girl." I whispered.

"Huh?" Robin was baffled.

"She knew what I would say." I replied, turning back to him. "She knew I'd refuse anyway."

Robin scowled. "So, the fact that she doesn't want you to be a Titan; to be close to her; to live with her and fight at her side; you don't mind this at all?"

"No." I replied calmly. "She knew that, if I became a Titan, I wouldn't be me anymore. Don't you get it, Robin? You see the world in black and white; you don't accept anything in between. You don't accept grey."

I grinned at Raven again and, even though she couldn't hear what we were saying, she saw the smile and raised an eyebrow, in that particular way that meant 'I'd-smile-back-but-I-don't-do-smiles'.

"Both Raven and I are grey, Robin –OK, Raven's more white than black, I'll admit, but nobody's perfect." I grinned at his scowl. "And, Robin, we're fine with it! Get it?"

"You're hopeless." he answered, shrugging.

"On the contrary." I answered, walking away. "I'm full of hope."

Raven smirked when I sat next to her.

"He hates to have his offers shot down." she monotoned.

"Good." I replied, grinning. "I love doing things he hates."

Her smirk got wider. "You certainly messed him up this time." she said.

"Huh?" I asked, not quite following her.

"Oh, come on!" she slapped the back of my head. "Out of all the Titans, the one who stopped us from killing Malchior with our bare hands was you. You've changed John, don't you see? Why, you even went through all of this mess and never once thought about turning it to your advantage."

That's what you THINK.

"Hmmmm…?" I mused, letting my gaze leave her eyes and travel…lower.

This time, her slap was a bit harder. "Pervert!"

"And proud of it." I countered and pecked her on the lips.

"John and Raven sitting on a tree! K-I-S-S-I…" came Beast Boy's cackle. Raven grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at him; he yelped and tried to get the grains off his hair. "Dude! My…hair…damn!"

"Maybe you haven't changed, when all's said and done." Raven growled with a twinkle in her eye.

I don't think she'll like finding out I've got the genome synthesizer tucked safely away in my suitcase.

What? That thing IS worth half a million bucks after all! You didn't expect me to leave it in Malchior's lair, did you?

"You have no idea." I replied, grinning and bent over for another kiss.

Teen Titans-The Wraith Chronicles

Part two-Wraiths and Hauntings

END

A/N: The End! (Whew!)

There IS going to be a third part (Memories and Nightmares), but right now, it's nothing more than some half-baked ideas. Suffice it to say, that it's gonna feature Slade (return of the revenge –with a vengeance!) and John Smith's only surviving relative.

(BTW, there's still a challenge: can you find out to what DC Hero or Villain JS is related? He or she is NOT one of the 'big' ones. Let me give you two hints: a)He or she is also an Illusionist b)use the Wikipedia)

Until I manage to get a scenario on the roll, I'll probably be trying out an Avatar: Airbender fic, that's been bouncing up and down in the back of my head for some time. But I'd like for the series to end first (grrrr…almost three months hiatus now!), just to get it 'in' canon.

Replies to comments are as follows:

Reaver: Da loophole! Yep, it pretty much is the best weapon up any writer's sleeve. I'm glad you liked it! Still waiting for YOU to update, though…:-(

Xaleria: lol. (Bows theatrically). I'm glad you enjoyed it and I'm flattered by your comments. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Kyle: Thanks! Like I said, I'm planning another one, but it'll take some time.

VV: I'm pretty much an atheist, so, as far as I'm concerned you can blaspheme away.
Awwww…don't cry!
Please?
And it's quite easy to live without a computer of your own.You borrow other peoples' (evil grin!)
I'm one for irony –haven't you figured it out yet?
And this is my last update for a long time (bows head in shame). Sorry. Forgive me.

Ciao, everybody! See you later!

Cheers
-Phaethon, out.