A/N: Yes, I realize that Raven is a bit OOC but her mom was raped and as such she was raised with the highest respect for individual space, rights and privacy by the monks. To enslave is worse than to kill in her opinion. Or at least that's my interpretation.

CH5

Meet the Parents

"…he will always call himself…Famulus."

Raven POV

The silence was deafening. Raven couldn't bring herself to look up, to see the judgment in her team's...in her family's eyes. They had stayed with her through things that no one should ever see, let alone have to face, they had saved her, accepted her, been with her for her first crush, her first heartbreak, her first battle, her first major screw up. They fought each other, traveled through time to stay friends, made her feel…home. Hell, they'd traversed Hell for her and brought her sense of self back when they met her father. They had been with her for everything that had ever mattered, and even given her her first birthday party, gave her something to be happy about on that cursed day. She couldn't meet their gazes. These people, her family, the best people she knew…she couldn't face their disgust, their hate, their rejection and- there was a finger on her face, and it was covered in a cloth and wet, it was…it was wiping the wetness from her face. But how had her face gotten wet? Then that same finger that had been wiping the wetness from her cheeks was under her chin, trying to lift her head. NO!

She jerked away, retreating from that contact, that contact that would force her to face…to face her family and their looks. She turned her head to the side, to hide her shame, but her face was just turned right back around, and the hands on the sides on her head forced her to look straight into the face of…a blur. Why was it a blur? She tried to blink a few times and that did nothing to clear the blur. The blur shifted, and released Raven before it spoke-

"A minute please?" there was movement around the room, and the sound of the door opening, and after more movement, closing. Then he spoke again. "Scootch." He poked her side a few times until she relented and moved, just a bit, it was him after all. The bed shifted as weight was put upon it and his weight sort of cratered it, making her slide towards him until their sides were touching, hip to shoulder. "Y'know" he began "with me here for the overflow, you can show more emotion if you want to. You can…there's nothing wrong with tears you know…well, except that they make everything blurry and all, and you can't read, or see things clearly or look really tough, and they totally make people look freaky when their eyeliner runs. I mean, you can still look epic, but your moment has to be like, reaaaaaally, convenient and emotional. Personally, I've never had an epic crying moment…but it doesn't stop me from trying. Usually, though, my friends…those closest to me, they tell me I look like crap and that I'm getting them all wet and I really need to stop because it's embarrassing."

What the hell was he going on about?

"They would especially tell me to get off if I put my head on their shoulder, kind like…this!" in so saying he put Raven's forehead on his shoulder, the blurry wetness in her eyes shifting then. She was going to move but he put his hand on the back of her neck and, because of the familiar bond, the contact felt good, so she let him put her head there. It wasn't as good when he removed his hand, but she could deal with that.

"Except I usually had my hand on whoever's shoulder it was. Usually Jazz or Sam. Bros don't cry on each other unless they reconcile with a two second bro hug, or their sister died or…or their gaming system broke and wiped all of the data from the disk, but really, that's how I knew it was going to be alright. I mean, I just sat there and bawled my eyes out like a two year old, and here they are, being all 'gruff and abrasive', telling me how bad I looked and how embarrassing I was. They wouldn't do that if it were anything really serious, I mean they cared about me, and really, it's only embarrassing if the cry-er cares what the cry-ee thinks and doesn't want to show any of their emotions and puts up a front, a mask. Did you know that the Latin for mask is 'persona'? Well, technically it's 'larva', but 'persona' also means 'disguise', which I think is what a mask really is. I mean, masks are decorated how you want so people will see what you want them to see and nothing else, hopefully…but, so is a persona that people adopt to hide who they really are. In both cases it's not perfect, and eventually at least one person will see past it….but it only takes one person to blab, I mean, 'a secret can be shared among two people only if one of the two is dead' right?"

Raven blinked a few times and shifted he head a bit to look at him, a confused look on her face. How in the nine hells did this have to do with anything?

"I guess that's kinda true, but, it's kind not, right?"

He was rambling.

"I mean, if someone only knew part, but couldn't connect it to a really important part, and someone else knew a different part, and they couldn't connect it without the first part that the other person knows, then, it's still a secret, because even if they got together and shared their parts, neither of them would have the whole, just parts right?" Raven blinked a few times

"How in the world did you say that all in one breath?" she asked then blinked a few more times

"I don't need to breath," he answered off-handedly "which also means that in Marco-polo I never have to come up for air and say 'polo', so you should remember that if you ever want to prank Beastboy." While she appreciated the gesture, he was rambling. Here she was having a full blown self reviling guilt trip after confessing her crimes to her team…and he was rambling…about Marco-polo. What?

"What?"

"I don't need to breath, so I'm perfect for Marco-polo…but also space. I've only been into space one time, and you've been like, four times. When you asked the JL for help, and when Star cocooned herself, and when she almost got married and when you fought that monster and found those 'sha-la' guys."

"Famulus, do you have a point in any of this?" she sniffled once and he finally looked at her. He looked into her eyes, appraisingly, as if to see if she would spontaneously combust, then all of a sudden, a smile broke his face.

"Yeah, the point is that you look like crap. You're getting me all wet and you need to stop because it's embarrassing." She felt her heart lift, if only ever so slightly.

"Thank you, Famulus."

"Any time Corvus, any time." Then the silent ambiance of the moment was shattered as the door slammed open and in came- "Oh no." Raven looked up and instantly knew who they were from the descriptions Danny had provided her. The large one in the orange hazmat waving around a very large bazooka was his father, Jack. The one in teal hazmat scoping the room after him was his mother, Maddie. The one with the headband and the long red hair and her face in her hands, trying to act like she just happened to be there and was not related to either of them in any way was his sister, Jazz. The black haired blonde in black, purple and green with worry in her eyes and dangerous looking combat boots on her feet was Sam. The darker skinned one with the red beret, cradling his machine like Cyborg would a piece of pizza, is Tucker. How did they get here so fast? They must have traveled all night to get here from Ohio.

"Danny!" was the near simultaneous cry from all of them. Suddenly, we were swarmed, well, he was swarmed, I was pushed out of the bed.

"Ooph!" Danny looked at me with concern, and tried to get to me, but he was held still and silenced by his friends asking him questions and his mother checking him for wounds.

"Are you ok?"

"Guys-"

"-come here-"

"Guys-"

"-missed you so much!"

"Guys-"

"-worried!"

"Guys-"

"-bruises, cuts scrapes?"

"Guys-"

"-saw dude! Everyone!"

"Guys-"

"-ever do that again-"

"-listening to me?"

"Fudge!"

"Guys-"

"-don't think he should-"

"HEY!" everyone seemed to take a half step back when he yelled, but only for an instant, then Sam was on him.

"Don't you yell at me Danny Fenton! What do you thi-mmmph!" she was cut off when he put his hand over her mouth. She seethed at him

"I wasn't yelling Sam, but-" and that's when she kicked him in the shin with her boot. "Yeowch! What was that for!?"

"Don't you cut me off when I'm speaking to you!"

"Sam."

"Do you know how worried we all were?"

"Sam."

"Do you know what we went through worrying over you?"

"Sam!"

"You could have called! You could have taken five seconds to pick up the phone and-"

"SAM!"

"WHAT?!" she screeched at him, livid. Everyone else was backing away at this point.

"You see that girl on the floor?" he pointed to me and as he did, I became the focus of everyone in the room. "This is her hospital room. I was visiting her. She's the one in here for collapsing from exhaustion, and this is her bed you've all relegated me to and taken over. In fact, when you took it over, you knocked the one person who was supposed to be in it, out of it, and onto the floor. I was trying to point this out to you all, but you wouldn't let me speak for half a second, which is why I raised my voice. Now can you let me help her up and get her back into this bed?" everyone was sheepishly silent for a moment before Tucker spoke

"Wow Danny, trying to get her in bed already? Shouldn't you at least take her on a date first?" I glared at him. Intensely.

"That's my boy!" his father shouted while his mother looked on disapprovingly. His sister shook her head an came around to help me up while Sam and Danny yelled out-

"TUCKER!"

"Alright! Chill out you guys! Sheesh! Lovebirds!"

"We're NOT Lovebirds!" they chimed together again

"They said in tandem." Crowed a very satisfied Tucker. Sam seethed at him turning a few new shades of red while Danny just face-palmed. Eventually, Jazz reached out a hand and offered it to Raven.

"Hi, I'm-"

"Jazz." Raven interrupted "I know, F-Danny told me about you." Jazz's face showed surprise before she smiled softly

"He has?" Raven moved over and sat next to Danny on the bed

"Yes. You're his older sister. That's Sam, the ultra-recyclo-vegetarian goth, you never call her Samantha, and that's Tucker, and he has a disturbing fetish for technology and meat and both are his two best friends. Jack and Maddie are his parents and professional ghost hunters, Maddie is the practically smarter of the two while Jack has a higher IQ. Maddie is a better shot and a ninth degree black belt but Jack can be just as dangerous if not more so when his family is threatened." She nodded to each person as she named them. They just stared at her "And he has an unhealthy obsession with fudge."

"FUDGE!" Jack shouted making everyone wince from the volume.

"I think that proves my point." Everyone was silent again until Sam began to size Raven up. Then she glared

"How do you know so much about us?" but Raven just took it in stride.

"Fa-Danny has been my pen-pal for over a year. We only recently told each other our real names. We wrote to each other every week." Might as well get all of the questions straight out

"Raven." Danny spoke up beside her "Her name is Raven." Tucker got wide eyed and grinned

"Dude! You never told us you were writing a Teen Titan!"

"I didn't know I was." He easily lied. He shrugged his shoulders "Until a two weeks ago, I thought I was writing a high school student in a group home who lived with three guys and a girl. When I knew I kinda freaked out, but then I called the number she gave me and we talked for a bit." Maddie stepped forward, somehow, disappearing her blaster.

"This is all very well and good, but we still have some things we need to clear up young man." She turned to Raven "And with you too missy. Why did you abduct our son from half way across the country in the middle of a fight with a villain?" Raven sighed, she should have expected this when they first burst in, but she was sort of flustered from having been knocked onto her ass.

"I recognized Skulker from Danny's descriptions, and while he was keeping me busy with crowd control and damage control, he defeated my team. I knew I needed a proper ghost hunter, and, well, Danny is just the best there is." Maddie's face seemed to contort and she sighed before-

"I would have had trouble believing that before the broadcast, but now-" but Danny interrupted her

"Broadcast? You saw that?" he covered his face with his hands "Oh man, how many other people saw it?" Tucker jumped in

"Dude, it was broadcast to all of Jump City and Amity Park. Everyone knows you're ripped, let Dash beat you up, act clumsy, and apparently, are the smartest Fenton." Danny groaned, then Sam punched him and he yelped

"Sam! What was that for?!"

"That was for Lying to us like you did to everyone else! We don't care if you're smarter than us, we like you for who you are, not who you pretend to be!" Danny smiled a little Sadly

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."

"You know Kurt Vonnegut?" asked a shocked Sam. Danny blushed and looked away, mumbling something along the lines of

"I was bored one day and Jazz had a lot of books." Something Raven said clicked in Sam's mind

"You keep almost calling him something else, but you stop yourself and use his real name what did he call himself?" Sam would have guessed that he would call himself ghostboy had Raven's slips not stared with the letter 'f'.

"He called himself 'Famulus de populi'." Sam snorted and Jazz rolled her eyes

"Nice one little brother." Tucker raised his hand

"For those of us who don't speak Latin?"

"Loosely translated, it means 'The Servant of the People'." Tucker laughed too

"Nice dude. So what did she call herself?" he jerked a thumb in Raven's direction

"'Magistra Corvus', but I usually just call her one or the other." Sam sighed

"Wow Danny, you make a clever name for yourself in Latin but when Raven does the same thing you don't even notice it, nice." Maddie spoke again and Jack was munching on fudge.

"Like I said, that's all well and good but we need to talk about some things. Where did you get those weapons? Where did they go to? When did you learn to fight young man?!" Danny winced

"Well, I took one of your blasters and fought off some ecto-pusses once, and then more and more ghosts kept coming after me, and eventually I had to learn how to fight properly and carry weapons on me at all times because the ghosts started to target me specifically." Sam spoke up

"It's true Mrs. Fenton, Danny even tried to stop being friends with us once because he thought we might get hurt." She smiled at Danny in a way that made everyone sans Raven shiver "But we fixed that problem, now didn't we Danny?" Danny paled even more

"Yes. Yes we did, and we shall never speak of it again." Sam turned back to his mom

"Anyways Mrs. F, we helped Danny learn to fight and make some weapons to keep on him, just in case he needed it. He doesn't go looking for the ghosts of course, like he said, they just target him." Maddie seemed to be thinking this through

"We'll talk more about this later, but first we need to look at your technology, we need to make sure it's stable and won't blow up on you." Danny just sighed and took out his wallet and his gloves and handed them over to his mom. His dad tried to grab them but Danny insisted

"Dad, I love you, and you're literally a genius, but you have a tendency to make things blow up, and if this blows up, we all blow up. Raven," he asked "can you explain about magicians and pocket dimensions?" she nodded

"Magi have theorized about, and proven, the existence of alternate dimensions and planes of reality, usually centered around a person or an object, but always bound to a soul or a deceased spirit. All of existence would be 'God's' personal dimension. The Ghost Zone, or more properly, Purgatory, would be a buffer between, Paradise and Perdition, the respective dimensions of the lightest and darkest angels. Within every dimension there exists a place for each soul's own personal dimension. Some demonic overlords have their own dimensions as large as planets or even galaxies, and magi have figured out a way to access their own personal private storage dimensions. Through meditation and many years of training, you can feel your personal resonance and begin to work with it to open a hole in the dimensional boundaries and into a dimension keyed to only you and your personal resonance. Your level of power and ability decree's the size and stability of your dimension. But in traveling from one dimension to another, you must work harder to cross back to your original dimension and from there to your pocket dimension. It is much easier in general to have a cache in each dimension you visit." She paused to see if everyone was following her, and, well, the girls were. "What your son has done, is take my magical knowledge, and your portal technology, and combined it together, to make an artificial gateway into his own pocket dimension, similar to the Fenton Portal. He took years of work and meditation, decades of knowledge, and compressed it to a month's research and two weeks work. Now, not only can he access his own pocket dimension for this reality, but any other as well by changing some settings on his gauntlets." Sam and Tucker knew of his 'Fenton-space' but didn't really know the details behind it, they just thought he was shrinking the items or something. Jazz actually helped with the research since she was the book worm and the philosopher, but his parents were completely floored. So of course, Tucker asked a question

"Dude, where's the battery?" Danny rubbed the back of his neck

"I may or may not have gotten asked Raven to get Starfire to travel to an uninhabited corner of the galaxy and use the my Fenton-wallet to join together several hundred pocket dimensions and suck in a small star twice the size of the moon." Silence reigned once more

"Only you little brother, only you."

"There's a star in that thing?" as one everybody in the room turned to look t the new voice. Said voice belonged to a green changeling next to a boy in a domino mask, the shorter two being in front of the taller two, a half robot and golden skinned alien. The speaker was green so, naturally, Jack's first reaction was to yell-

"GHOST!" and point a bazooka at him and fire

"EEP!" Beastboy ducked under the foam leaving Starfire, who was looking down at her team mate to take the full blast of foamy green ectoplasm

"JACK!" was Maddie

"DAD!" was Danny

"DADDY!" was Jazz

The sound of two face palms was Sam and Tucker. Jack was looking at the ecto-foam dripping from Starfire and onto Beastboy, curious over the lack of sizzling or cries of pain. Soon Danny joined them in their face-palming. Raven just raised her eyebrow. Starfire tentatively spoke up-

"This…this is punishment? I have done something wrong?" she looked close to tears and Maddie took pity on her, getting out and ecto proof cloth

"No dear, my husband is just over-zealous and confused the young man on the floor for a ghost an-"

"GHOST!" he raised his bazooka again, causing Starfire to start trembling once more and hide behind Maddie and the boys to dive to the side but Maddie was prepared this time

"JACK! HEEL!" He immediately stopped and dropped his bazooka, looking at Maddie expectantly. "Jack his skin is just green, he's not a ghost." She said sternly, giving him the 'mom look'

"But-" she glared at him harder, crossed her arms and started to tap her foot. He sighed and looked down

"Yes, dear." Maddie smiled then

"Good boy," she reached into a side pocket and tossed something into the air "here's a cookie." all that was seen of the cookie was an orange flash that was then in the corner, stuffing it's face. "Like I said, he mistook your friend for a ghost and fired first, but missed and unfortunately you got hit. Here dear, come with me, we'll get you all cleaned up." She put an arm around a still confused and slightly scared Starfire's shoulders and began to lead her out of the room.

"Mom! My stuff?" she looked back at him

"Daniel James Fenton, you are not getting your experiment back until I make sure it's stable and won't blow up the entire Earth. Are we clear?"

"But mom I check-"

"Are we clear?" she intoned in a way so that there was no doubt as to what the actual answer was. Danny sighed.

"Yes ma'am." She smiled, sort of apologetically.

"Danny, it's a brilliant achievement, but I need to make sure it's safe, it's my job as a mom to worry about you. Please Danny." He hung his head

"Sorry…" she smiled at him

"It's okay sweetie." She turned her attention back to Starfire "Now let's get you cleaned up. Let's go Jack! To the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle!" and so saying, she and Jack rushed a startled Starfire from the room. There was silence once more. Beastboy came out from behind the curtain, ecto-goo from Starfire still dripping

"To the what now?"

"The RV." Jazz sighed "C'mon, you need to get it out of your hair or it will stain and attract ghosts." Beastboy 'eep'-ed and was promptly dragged protesting from the room by Jazz. Robin was about to speak up but Danny beat him to it.

"You probably want to make sure that while my mom controls my dad and Jazz cleans Starfire that Beastboy doesn't skip out or he'll be haunted for weeks." Robin seemed torn for a moment, then sighed and said

"C'mon Cyborg." Cyborg shrugged and followed him out while Tucker looked to Sam, Danny and Raven and shrugged

"I'm going to follow them dude, hot alien chick getting a shower and a half-tech man beat hot demon chick any day. Later!" he rushed out of the room and Sam face-palmed, again, following him yelling

"TUCKER!" Danny and Raven looked at each other for a moment.

"Well," he said "that could have gone better." Raven's only response was to once more raise her eyebrow.