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Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.
Now on with the epilogue...
The Extra-Terrestrial Related Trauma Help Group: First and Last Meeting
No one really wanted to start. Vic looked around and suddenly went, "1, 2, 3, not it!"
"Not it!" chorused Dick and Raven.
"Not it...?" tried Kory.
"Not--aw..." Gar looked around for help, and though everyone was sympathetic, they didn't offer it to him. Better now then never, anyway. He took a deep breath, and the atmosphere turned much more serious. "Okay. Um...ten years ago, I was in middle school--and happy. I didn't really do that well, but at least I had everything a normal human being should have. Then, one night, I was out late trying to get this hurt owl back into its natural habitat--don't ask. It was a hobby. I wanted to be a vet when I grew up..." He paused and started again. "This UFO came out of nowhere. All I remember is looking up and then trying to get the owl to fly away, and I got knocked out.
"When I woke up, I was actually on the ship. There were a whole bunch of people in baggy blue suits that were looking at me and speaking in this weird language. I never saw what they looked like, but I didn't want to. They kept me in a cage at night, they fed me weird stuff that I didn't even want to look at, but the worst part was during the day, when they tried to experiment on me. Most of the experiments didn't do much, and I think that got them kind of mad. Then one day, they brought in this monkey. At least, it would've been a monkey, if it hadn't been green. The thing bit me, and I...now I'm like this." He motioned to his green skin. "I was sick for so long, they thought I would die. They dropped me back to Earth and left, but I haven't forgotten them. I would know that spaceship anywhere, and they'd better hope I never see them again..."
Kory put a comforting arm on Gar's shoulder. "I am sorry. There are many evils in space that Earth has yet to experience, but species of that kind are most definitely the worst."
"You said you knew the Gordanians, Gar," Raven, the unofficial mediator, urged softly. Even she couldn't work up a biting comment to that kind of story.
"They were the guards on the ship. They had a tendancy to hurt anyone that wasn't wearing one of those stupid suits."
Again, the room was silent. Dick broke it. "You next, Vic."
"What's there to tell? Everyone knows my story. I worked for Mr. Wayne for five years. Dick went missing, and I tracked him down. Then those Gordanians got me, nearly killed me off, too. The end."
"That's not it at all, Vic. Your parents. The reason you joined up with Mr. Wayne," Raven suggested.
"Is she allowed to do that?" Vic asked Bruce. The older man inclined his head.
"Even I could tell you were hiding something. Raven cannot read minds."
"Fine. They were killed. My dad was a scientist. He got in a bad way with some aliens who didn't like where his theories were going. I don't know what happened, exactly, I was pretty young. The aliens killed my mom and dad and I was stuck in some orphanage for eight years."
Raven nodded, satisfied. "Kory?"
Kory sighed. "There is much to tell."
"We have time."
"I...am not a normal Tamaranian. My powers were given to me by a series of experiments preformed on me by the Psions. It was not a pleasant time. I escaped from them, and returned to Tamaran, where I remained for many of my childhood years before I was traded to Gordania as a slave. I was to be moved to the Citadel, where I would have been worked to death, had I not escaped and landed here." She reached for Dick's hand, and he smiled at her.
Raven cleared her throat. Kory sighed.
"I was also the princess of Tamaran before the treaty was made. That is all."
"Wait, what?!" Gar cried. "That was kind of important! Why didn't you say that first?"
"A princess, Kory? Is that why they were all over trying to get you back as prisoner?" Vic exclaimed.
Kory said nothing. Raven rolled her eyes. "Dick, your turn."
Dick thought for a while. How could he possibly relate what had happened to him in these last few weeks in one speech? It wasn't at all possible to describe all the trauma and worry and pain and fear. But there had been a lot more in this adventure, too. He'd found so many friends, discovered how big of a place the universe was, met the girl of his dreams, and visibly improved his temper. He couldn't even remember the times when he'd automatically hate everyone around him, especially if things weren't going his way. That night so long ago, when the entire nation's airports were down, seemed so far away.
"You guys were with me the whole time. There's not a lot to say. I was an airhead prettyboy before, and now I'm an airhead prettyboy who's saved a planet."
Bruce looked like he wanted to agree.
"But it was a great ride..."
"True that. Might've been better without the fire, though," Vic seconded.
"Raven?"
Her answer came swiftly. "I am an alien. All the trauma I've ever experienced was extra-terrestrial related, and I'm not going to sit here talking about it. Well..." She eyed Dick. "You were a bit traumatizing at first. Should I talk about that?"
Gar breathed out in relief, but Raven caught the movement. "Don't think I've forgotten about you. In my tea, of all places."
"Heh...from a bird's point of view, it kinda looked like a potty...I'm sorry! Don't hurt me!"
"That should've been videotaped," Vic guffawed.
"Well, I think it's time to wrap this meeting up," Dick interrupted.
Kory giggled and stood. "Until next time, my traumatized friends." She hugged everyone and kissed Dick goodnight before going to her assigned room in Wayne Manor.
Gar snored. "I'll take him," Raven muttered. "'Night." She engulfed Gar in an envelope of her energy, noticably larger than it had to be. Hopefully the poor guy wouldn't wake up.
"Yeah, I think I'll head in, too. Thanks for letting me stay, Mr. Wayne," yawned Vic.
"No problem. Until we get a charger for you installed in your home, you have no choice but to stay here at night. I'll send people tomorrow."
Dick waited until everyone was gone, and then spoke up. "You know, you were supposed to have a turn, too. That's why I made you sit through all of that."
"I know."
Nothing came. Bruce got up and watched the first snowfall out of his window, staring at his expectant ward out of the corner of his eye.
"Another time, Dick."
Dick nodded, disappointed. "Good night, Bruce."
He had no intention of going to sleep. He crept along silently, into the living room, and set the time on the huge grandfather clock to 10:47. The entrance to the ET lab opened silently. Down he went, stepping on to the perfectly polished floor.
There was a computer at the very end of the large room, just as Dick suspected to find. He turned it on and searched through the oldest files.
Why did this agency even start?
An article from November 1974 popped up on the screen.
Strange Sightings in Gotham City.
The picture on the screen was blurry, but it was unmistakeably a Tamaranian woman.
"I knew you wouldn't leave this alone."
Dick whirled around to see Bruce behind him. "I...uh..."
"Kory looks just like her mother."
Dick was dumbfounded.
"Another time, Dick. When everything's settled." Bruce stared at the picture, almost seeming...wistful. At least, he was too out of it to get mad at Dick, who high-tailed out of there with his head spinning. But every time he tried to gather his thoughts, Kory's mother stared at him through the fear-filled eyes the camera had shown.
A crash landing...
...A dangerous quest...
...A budding romance...
...Taken away in a moment.
It was so familiar.
"Kory!" He nearly knocked her door down. Kory sat up in her bed, eyes wide.
"Are they here again?"
"No. Just promise you won't leave...and go back to Tamaran and..." Wouldn't he hate Kory's daughter too, then? If he'd known she'd left him to go marry some prince and rule her planet, would he have been able to look at her children without wishing they'd never existed? How could Bruce ever forgive him for being so cruel?
"Dick, what's wrong?"
He sat on her bed, waiting to gather his thoughts before he spoke. "There's something that you should probably know."
You know, Luand'r...you've taught your daughter well. At least, it wasn't as hard to patch up her arrival to this planet, Bruce mused to himself. Thank goodness she's more loyal to Dick than you were to me.
A secret cave...
...The world's smartest people...
...The world's best equipment...
...A single goal...
...He had to find her...
...But when he did, it didn't matter.
Bruce remembered it like it was yesterday.
Did it work? It wasn't too cheesy or stupid, was it?
Let me know. I wanted it to work out that Bruce knew more than he let on and that this whole alien contact thing would relate to Kory somehow but it didn't come to me! I would totally understand if any flames were coming...but I want you guys to know that I really did try and make this make sense...and 10:47 was as in 10-74...November 1974...
The end.
--HPFan1994