Teen Titans – Futures

By BenRG

Disclaimer

The Teen Titans were created for DC Comics by Marv Williams and George Pérez. The animated adaptation was created for Warner Brothers by Glen Murakami. They are the trademark property of DC Comics and its owners.

This is a not-for-profit fan-work for free distribution through the world-wide web. No claim of ownership is made by the author or distributors of this work.

Author's Notes

This story is not set in any strict version of the Titans canon. Elements of both the comics (in all its varying forms) and the animated series will appear here as well as aspects of my own, personal fanon universe. One major difference is the inclusion of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) as one of the Titans from the approximate time Terra first joined the team.

A warning in advance: The timeline of this story is shaky at best. The Titans universe has been reset at least once and the comics and animated versions are almost completely incompatible. I've done my best, but it is difficult to square the circles, especially given the multiple deaths and resurrections of Slade and the constantly-revised ages of the characters.

About fifteen years after the formation of the Titans, a married Dick Grayson is returning to Jump City for the celebration of one of his former team-mates' marriage. When he does so, a mystery will be exposed and his relationship with his wife tested as never before as the future of the Titans begins to be revealed.

Censor: T

Chapter 1 – The Prodigal Son (and Daughter) Return

Richard Grayson, the originator of the Robin identity and currently Nightwing, the mysterious protector of the city of Blüdhaven, had faced many terrible and astonishing dangers in his life. He had gone toe-to-toe with demons, encountered psychopaths for whom mass murder was an elaborate joke. He had encountered (and dated!) alien princesses, demi-demon sorceresses and immortal amazons. He had faced foes of all sorts and had made a whole city that bit safer by his own hard work.

So… as he stood there, resplendent in his costume, on this island off the coast of Jump City, why was his stomach now churning so hard that he was afraid that he was going to puke?

It was probably because, for the first time in a very long time, he was about to walk into Titans Tower.

Now, it wasn't as if Dick was afraid of the Titans. Far from it. The (formerly Teen) Titans were amongst his closest and most trusted friends in the world. Hell, Roy was the closest thing he had to a brother! However… well, as well as triumphs, there had been tragedies during those six youthful years in Jump City. Worse, there had been embarrassments that were bad for the male ego. Okay, so Babs was there for most of them but still, it wasn't the sort of thing of which you wanted to be reminded…

"So, Short-pants, are we gonna stand here all night or are you going to press the doorbell?"

Dick looked over at Barbara Grayson – Phoenix – his wife, partner in crime-fighting, best friend and better half, currently resplendent in her fighting mantle, similar to his own Nightwing costume except it had a red and gold firebird instead of his blue crow sigil. He noted her mocking smile that she always wore when she caught him in the middle of a self-image crisis. It was hard trying to be the stoic, fearless costumed adventurer who knew all and overcame every obstacle when your wife wasn't fooled by that self-deception for a moment. It normally eased matters between them that neither had any ability to keep secrets from the other but… damn it, sometimes it was awkward.

"I guess I'm just a little nervous seeing the guys after all this time, Babs!"

Barbara shot her husband an odd look. "Dick, half of them were at the spring cook-off in Metropolis! I don't think you could say any of them have become strangers!"

Dick laughed. "It's more because we're here Babs. Gotham, the Haven, even Metropolis to a certain extent are either home or neutral turf. Running into them here again, after all these years?" Dick sighed. "It's going to bring back a lot of memories, not all of them good."

Barbara smiled as she thought back to her own nearly four years as a Titan.

At first, Dick had thought his old girlfriend had run away from Gotham to be with him. Much to his crushing disappointment, it turned out that Barbara Gordon was studying electronics and computer sciences at Jump City University. However, it still meant that Robin and Batgirl were able to fly from rooftop to rooftop side-by-side again. It also meant that the group's internal dynamic was sent tottering, something of which Barbara was pleasantly unaware until Kori had confronted her and demanded that she reveal her intentions regarding Dick. Oddly enough, although she had dreams of linking up with Dick again, it was only after that rooftop encounter with a mad-as-murder alien girl that she had realised that he was what she needed, what was missing in her life.

Barbara laughed to herself. Yes, there were good times and bad. Oddly enough, the bad times all coincided with the name Slade Wilson. She couldn't help but shiver as she remembered the long nights she, Kori and Rae had spent holding Tara, who was weeping and screaming in the grip of a terrifying nightmare from which she could not wake. On the very worst nights (thank God they were rare), the flashbacks had become so intense that the girl had lost all sense of reality and had become convinced that the metahuman assassin was torturing and brainwashing her again. She forced her memories to lighter topics: Vic and Karen circling uncertainly around each other, both afraid to make the first move; Kori's innocent sense of wonder at the most mundane Earthly experience; The first time Raven felt secure enough in herself to laugh at one of Gar's jokes; That Thanksgiving at the Tower with Jenny's impassioned advocacy of a pardon for the turkey whilst Toni hummed a patriotic tune in the background.

She leant over and kissed her husband on the cheek, just below the edge of Nightwing's mask. "You'll do fine, hot stuff," she said. "Just remember: These are friends!"

Dick rolled his eyes. "That's one of the things I'm worried about," he said. "These friends know all about us." Dick sighed. Time to suck it up, hero, he told himself and pressed the intercom button.

Within a minute, the door opened and a gold-red-and-purple blur shot through opening and flung her arms around Dick and Barbara's necks in a ecstatic airborne hug of welcome: "Oh X'hal! Friend Nightwing! Friend Phoenix! It is so gloriously joyous to see you again!"

Automatically, Dick returned the hug as Babs did from the other side. "Hey, Starfire… or should I say 'General Koriand'r'?" he teased.

The Tamaranian woman laughed and backed out of the hug, swatting Dick on the shoulder gently. "Silly Wing! I am hardly in my warrior's uniform am I? 'General Koriand'r' is on leave and she is most pleased to simply be Kori for the next four weeks!" The tawny-skinned woman beamed in happiness. "It has been too long! So much has happened and this is a most blessed time!"

Kori was right about that. After six years, the Titans had all started going their own way. Wally had taken over from his Uncle Barry as The Flash and Dick had gone to Blüdhaven to become that benighted city's protector. Victor and Karen had retired altogether, citing a desire to determine what was a 'normal life'. Kori went further than most. With her parents' deaths at the hands of a traitor, she and sister (and her former arch-foe) Kommand'r, Blackfire, returned back to Tamaran to fight the usurper. After defeating the traitor and his Thangaran-backed army and seeing Kommand'r safely enthroned, Kori found herself made general of her sister's armies with innumerable responsibilities. The last time she had got away to visit Earth had been for Dick and Babs' wedding over two years ago! Which was a coincidence, because a not-dissimilar event is what had brought the complete group together for the first time since then.

"Come! Come in, my friends!" Kori said, grabbing Dick and Babs by the hands and dragging them into the Tower. "You are almost the last to arrive! There are so many people to see…!" Dick and Babs stopped and looked up. "Friends…? What is the reason…? Oh, yes!" Kori looked up and realised that the two newcomers were looking at the statue of the one Teen Titan who never made it to adulthood.

All three stood silently, Kori adopting the respectful pose of her culture by crossing her hands across her heart, and bowing her head slightly. They all had shadows in their past but the one that they all had in common was Joe. Joseph Wilson. Jericho. Barbara squeezed her husband's hand reassuringly and leant her head on his shoulder. "He knew what he was doing," she murmured. "It was something that he wanted to do."

"I still wonder if I could have changed things somehow."

"That is the burden of the commander," Kori responded wisely, squeezing her former boyfriend's shoulder.

Dick walked into the Common Room. Many things had changed but the room hadn't really altered all that much. Was that really the same beaten-up leather sofa in front of the TV set? Admittedly, that was a brand new GameStation-3X rather than the original GameStation under the new wide-screen plasma TV. The view of Jump City from the huge picture window here at the crux of the Tower's 'T' was still as astonishing as ever. The décor had stayed the same, though. Overall, the similarities outweighed the differences.

Dick looked around himself and half expected to see Vic and Gar playing a video game with fierce concentration whilst Star leant over their shoulders, desperately trying to understand this strange human activity and Raven sat on a stool in the kitchen nook, sipping on her tea.

Then Dick blinked and realised that this was what was happening. Of course, this was 30-year-old journalist and environmental activist Garfield Logan, not 15-year-old Beast Boy, and 34-year-old Professor Victor Stone, lecturer in applied bionic technology at Jump City U, rather than 19-year-old Cyborg. Thirty-one-year-old Koriand'r of Tamaran, utterly at ease with human society and knowing her friends far too well, slinked over and offered a teasing comment about the two men's driving skills. Meanwhile, 32-year-old doctor of history Rachel Roth sat on a stool, sipping tea and reviewing some academic papers, her lips twitching with humour as she watched Kori's perfectly-judged tease so totally throw off both Vic and Gar's concentration at a critical moment that they simultaneously crashed their game cars.

"Hey there, costumed adventurers!" Vic stood up and heartily shook Dick and Babs' hands in turn. "Us poor provincial types are honoured by your presence, oh Justice League Auxiliary Members!"

Barbara waved her hand idly. "Technically, Sarah, the chief technician in the Javelin hanger, is an 'auxiliary member' too, Vic. Frankly, she's more central to the League than us!"

Dick slapped his old friend on the shoulder. "So, how are you doin' big guy? How's Karen?" Victor had married Karen Beecher, Bumblebee, shortly after they both retired from active duty with the Titans.

"She's out chasing down some stuff for the Bridal Shower," Vic explained. "Enjoying every minute of having stuff to organise, though." He looked at Barbara again. "How's the new back working?"

Barbara twisted her upper body. "Hardly notice it's there," she reported. Barbara had been paralysed from the waist down after being shot in the gut by The Joker. Shortly after she married Dick, Vic had come up with a way to replace her destroyed spinal column without having to use an obvious external cable trunk and power supply, a former necessity as his own enormous nearly-robotic body proved. So successful was the implant that Barbara was able to set down the mantle of Oracle and become Phoenix, standing beside her husband in protecting their city. (This also allowed a brilliant young student of Barbara's to take over as Oracle, but that was another story.)

"Richard. Barbara. Welcome." Rae stood and walked over to her two old friends. "Thank you for coming."

"Hey, would we miss this for the world?" Babs asked before hugging the quiet sorceress. Raven smiled and hugged her back. Once, a very long time ago, Raven would have frozen or fought to get free from physical contact like that but she had come a long way since then. Raven had conquered her past, as much as anyone could conquer the facts of their ancestry, and had become comfortable in her skin in a way Dick could never have imagined when the Titans were originally formed. Raven was now… happy. She smiled at her friends, initiated physical contact and was even so bold as to kiss Dick on the cheek.

The final proof? This gathering was to celebrate her upcoming marriage.

Raven, of all of them, had the hardest time on her path to adulthood and emotional stability. It did not help that, to control her demon half, she had disciplined herself to almost completely repress all of her emotions. She was so afraid of her dark half that she would not dare to allow anyone close to her in the fear that it may harm them.

Even after Trigon's fall, Rae maintained a nearly-physical distance from her team-mates. Oddly enough, it was another's misfortune that marked the renaissance of Rae's personality. It was when Terra was misled and then brainwashed and enslaved by Slade Wilson, Deathstroke the Terminator.

Even though Tara ultimately able to break free from Slade's conditioning, such things as she went through left scars both physical, mental and emotional. Even after her memories returned, the girl was uncertain around her team-mates and visibly flinched at physical contact, hinting at abuses that, as far as Dick knew, she had never told anyone about. Dick, who had his own failures to handle, was able to help a little. However, the person who helped Tara the most, maybe even averted her suicide, was Rae.

Rae could empathise with Tara in a way that the other Titans couldn't. She, after all, knew what it was to be a slave to evil. To have one's mind and soul rewritten on a fundamental level so that friends became enemies and love became hate. She knew what it meant to willingly inflict the most terrible atrocities on the innocent and gladly strive to destroy those who were once your friends. She, too could look at her friends and remember with perfect clarity a time when her fondest dream was their humiliation and painful death.

In truth, Rae hadn't got over it either. So, instead, she and Tara got over it together. They explored their memories and meditated on the truths of their relationships. They shared things that, to Dick's knowledge, they never shared with anyone else, even their boyfriends. Slowly, they healed each other by realising the futility of dwelling on a past so utterly out of their control and by acknowledging where their arrogance and fears had left them vulnerable to the lure of evil when it came.

Dick would always remember the evening when Tara walked into the Common Room, saw Gar and smiled. Really smiled. Smiled with genuine happiness rather than the forced half-smile that faded quickly, which had been the most she had been able to manage recently. Then her face became serious and she walked over to Gar until they were practically touching.

"So, was it true, what you said to me that day in Tokyo?" she asked seriously. "Did you want me dead?"

Gar looked shocked and had to take a few breaths before answering. "I'm sorry I said that…" he murmured.

"But was it true?"

Gar clearly had to think about what to say. "Seein' you like that, Tara? A monster controlled by Slade…? Yeah, it was true. I'd rather see you dead than having to live a nightmare like that." Tara nodded seriously, as emotionless as Rae on a bad day, giving no sign if she approved or disapproved of Gar's reply, only that she understood. "But…" Gar looked up again. "But I'd rather see you like this: Alive and free."

Tara's smile came out again. "I'm glad," she said. "Rae was right. You do care for me, don't you Gar?" Beast Boy had spluttered a little and Tara had actually giggled. "That's good because I care for you too!" Then she initiated the kiss, the first of what would be many. Dick had looked around at that point and had seen Raven… smiling. The first genuine smile he had ever seen grace her lips.

After that, Rae never seemed to turn back. Although she had long carried a torch for Dick, she was more than able to handle his gentlemanly but firm lack of interest in her. Instead she began to go out on the town with Star, Jinx, Argent and Terra. She even dated. It all came to a head with the newest Titan – Jericho.

Joe had been an incredible time in Rae's life. Everyone was more than a little suspicious of Slade Wilson's youngest son. Everyone except Raven. Maybe it was because she knew a demon when she saw one and didn't see one in him. Maybe it was his inability to speak that fitted in with her own quiet demeanour. Maybe it was the fact that, as telepaths, they could communicate on a level utterly unimaginable to most people. Or, maybe it was because she genuinely liked the gentle, artistic boy and he genuinely liked her; the two of them simply connected and seemed made for each other. It was a horrible blow for her when Joe died in that final, horrible battle with Slade. Slade had run Joe through with a sword but, with his final movement, Joe had thrown both himself and his father off of the side of a cliff into a blazing pit of lava, a death from which not even Slade's uncanny regenerative ability could save him.

For a long while, Dick thought that Raven would retreat back into herself. Certainly, it was clear that she had felt the blow deeply and was understandably wary of exposing herself to this pain ever again. However, she recovered soon enough and even found the strength to pursue further relationships. Including, much to the other Titans' mirth, Roy Harper, Arsenal (or Speedy as he still was then).

Now, here they found themselves, just two weeks away from Rae getting married; Not even to a fellow costumed hero either! Rae had retired from all that long ago, studying history and getting a job as an assistant curator at the city's Archaeological Museum. Who should she meet but a field archaeologist named Tony who happened to share her love for rare books, her interest in the occult and her love of classical music? From what Gar had told Dick in his regular emails, it was pretty much a match made in heaven. Not even learning that his girlfriend was a former costumed hero, possessed of immense metahuman powers and was the mentor to a new generation of the heroes could get between them.

"So… are you ready?" Babs asked Rae.

The pale-skinned woman considered this carefully before shaking her head. "Frankly, no. I never thought that I could experience a fear this strong in a non-life-threatening scenario."

Barbara laughed. "Good, because you can't go into something like this and not be nervous. I know that I was a wreck! Dinah and Helena eventually had to slip a knock-out drop into my tea to make me sleep!"

"If it makes any difference, Tony probably feels just as nervous," Dick offered.

"Which is why I had Vic stick a tracer on him," Gar announced with a commendably straight face. "Never fear, my dear Raven, the Titans are on the job! If he runs, we'll find him before he gets too far."

Raven raised an eyebrow and, based on the way she was glaring at Gar, Dick wondered whether she was about to deliver a heated defence of her fiancé. Suddenly another voice interrupted. "At least there is no chance of him morphing into an insect and trying to hide on the wedding day, is there, darling?"

Tara Logan, Terra, walked into the room shooting her husband a cool and mocking smile, her second child, little baby Martin, in her arms. As she strode over, her hip-length blonde hair flowed from side to side in the way that always had a hypnotic effect on her husband.

"Honey! You're back early!" Gar, to his credit didn't miss a beat. He took Martin from his wife's arms and kissed her gently on her cheek, an act that made her smile warm up considerably. "Everything is okay, isn't it?"

"Of course," Tara said. "It isn't as if Karen would allow anything else! Dick, Babs! Hey! Great to see you two slow-pokes have finally arrived!" With her arms freed, Tara was able to embrace her two friends.

"Hey, it's easy for you 'retirees'!" Babs responded without a hint of rancour. "Those of us who still have a city to protect need to be careful how they schedule their time!"

"Oh, please," Tara said. "Don't pull the suffering martyr act, Babs! You two love the buzz too much to ever give it up!"

Barbara laughed and turned to greet Karen, who was carrying several shopping bags and looked like the trip had been harder than Tara had let on. Dick was about to greet the former Bumblebee too when an imperious hand tugged on the leg of his costume.

Dick knelt down and smiled at the little four-year-old girl with green-tinted skin, green-tinted long blonde hair and delicately pointed elfin ears who peeked out from behind Tara's legs. "Are you going to say hello to me too?" Theresa 'Terri' Logan smiled in a way that Dick was sure had Gar wrapped around her little finger.

"Of course I will!" Dick responded. He then took the little girl's hand and dropped a courtly kiss onto the back, making her little round face light up in pleasure. "Hello, Terri. How are you?" Terri bowed her head a little shyly, her long hair falling across her eyes.

"I'm fine Uncle Dick," she said quietly.

Dick raised a finger. "Now, what do you know to do when I'm in costume?"

The girl frowned in thought for a moment before she blushed in embarrassment. "Oh! Yeah! I remember! Sorry, Uncle Nightwing!" Dick had noticed something but it was only at that moment that he had to respond. Terri's hand had become uncomfortably hot. He let go reflexively and shook his hand to cool it. The girl's face flamed red with shame and embarrassment. "Oh, no, was I going all fire-y again?"

"Don't worry about it, kiddo," Dick assured her immediately. "No harm done." He looked up at Tara. "Has she stared manifesting powers?"

The geokinetic woman nodded, biting her lip in worry. "It started just after her fourth birthday," she reported. "She literally melted into the bath-water. Now she's started hiding by literally melding into the soil in the yard and nearly bursts into flames sometimes if she gets embarrassed or angry! Let alone the windstorm when she's in a hurry!" Tara noticed her first child's obvious worry and caressed her face reassuringly. "It isn't your fault honey; Mommy loves you still. She just gets a little worried sometimes when it happens!"

Dick stood up and squeezed Tara's shoulder. "Are you handling it? If not, I could ask Wally or Donna to help."

"It isn't that different to how my powers started manifesting," Tara said. "I'm on top of it but… Well, me and Gar…"

"We don't want her to feel obligated to be a costumed hero when she grows up," Gar finished, wrapping his arms around his wife's waist from behind and hugging her, nuzzling her long blonde hair affectionately. Tara leaned into her mate's embrace thankfully, forgetting her worries for her obviously-powerful daughter for a moment.

Dick nodded. "You won't find me insisting that she put on a mask, Tara, not unless she wants to."

"That's the worry," Tara said dispiritedly. "She's too much like me and Gar. She'll want to."

This adult conversation clearly went completely over Terri's head and bored her. "Mommy," she said urgently, tugging on the leg of Tara's pants. "Can I go play with Jerry and Rachel now?"

Jerry was Jericho Stone, Vic and Karen's son. However, Dick wasn't familiar with the name 'Rachel' as a playmate for Terri. He caught Babs's eye and saw that she didn't know who 'Rachel' was either. Then he caught the slight motion of her eyes and, reacting to the cue learned from years working together as Robin and Batgirl, and later Nightwing and Phoenix, he turned his head just in time to catch the look of horror, shame and embarrassment on Kori's face.

"So… what's the story, Kori?" Dick asked as he watched Terri and Jerry play with a tawny-skinned, green-eyed girl with long raven-black hair of about four years age.

"Please, Friend Dick," Kori whispered. "Do not force these words from me."

"Kori, I know enough about Tamaran culture to know that there is as much a taboo about unwed motherhood there as there is here," Barbara said. "I also know that, if you were married, you would be wearing a silver armband on your left arm etched with your husband's family sigil." Barbara reached forward and touched the younger woman's shoulder gently. "Kori… you weren't… forced by someone on Tamaran were you? During the Civil War?"

Kori's reaction was sudden and violent. She threw Barbara's hand off her shoulder and whirled on the human woman furiously. "NO!" she shouted. "Rachell'r is no child of rape! How dare you say such things about her?"

Barbara jumped back in surprise, falling instinctively into an aggressive defensive posture. Dick got in between his wife and former girlfriend. Despite their years working together and the fact that Dick had never done anything to aggravate jealousy between them, the two were never quite entirely at ease with each other and arguments had got violent before. "Stand down, Starfire!" he snapped. "You too, Phoenix! That's an order, both of you! You two are adults and I expect you to act like it!"

Hearing her code-name made Kori instinctively snap to attention. Suddenly all the fight drained out of her and she covered her face. "I… My apologies, Friend Dick," Dick cleared his throat and Kori continued. "And to you, Friend Barbara. I… was simply caught off guard. I should have informed you of these events earlier but… I did not know how to do so. I still do not know how to do so. I fear that it will destroy your friendship with me and I do not want that but… Oh, X'hal, she brings me such comfort and joy! I cannot be ashamed of her, no matter how hard I try!"

"Kori," Babs said gently. "Please, we're your friends. Please tell us and I swear that Dick and I will not judge you. Please, tell us who is Rachell'r's father."

Kori sucked in a deep breath. "I will hold you to that promise, Friend Barbara," she said. She looked over at Rachell'r, playing with the other two kids in the play-room Vic had built in the Tower. "Friend Dick… Rachell'r is your daughter."

Barbara felt her heart shatter in her chest. She wanted to curl up in a ball and die. She would have run from the scene if it were not for the look of horrified incomprehension on her husband's face.

The Graysons almost missed Kori's quiet continuation. "Maybe it would have been better if you had never known," she said thoughtfully. "However, she deserves to know of her father's species and culture, to know her father… In any case, I fear that Tamaran will not long be safe for the bastard child of the Queen's sister."

To be continued…