Edward and the Tiny Titans

March, 2012

Rated: T

Author's Note: Teen Titans and other related characters are courtesy of DC Comics and Cartoon Network. Xena is owned by Universal/MCA Television.

Prologue
[A month after the Honeymoon]

Edward Barnes writes…

We've got a huge problem! Mad Mod and Mumbo teamed up against us and, well, I don't know how to explain this except…

The team's been robbed of their age! My being 3000 is the only thing that kept me from reverting to a dragonet, but, it feels like I've also shed a lot of years. Like I felt when I was with Xena in the early days of Christianity, to be honest. I still have my memories, thank God. I'm not so sure about the rest of the team. Everyone's at least 15 years younger. Some look like they're not much older than Melvin or Màs y Meños. For once, I'm glad that Arella stays at the Tower as she's the only member of the main Titans team not to have been affected…As well as Cyborg.

This has left me as being the co-leader of the team of barely 10 year old kids, but, what gets me is that Cyborg's implants seem to have protected him. The misfired spell didn't work on him. We'll need his help in a big way.

The big question: Will this wear off and the team reverts to their proper ages or will this require that the team grow up all over again?

Chapter 1
[A couple of days after the Honeymoon ended]

Edward and Raven had returned from their honeymoon in Hawaii and were settling into an early routine as husband and wife. Edward would arise before Raven and after finishing his morning toilette would go make Raven and himself some herbal tea before the other Titans, save Nightwing, were awake. Nightwing would usually be on the roof, enjoying the sunrise alone. It was one of the times when it was understood by the team that Nightwing needed the space to think about recent events or finalize plans for the day. It wasn't to feed the Boy Wonder's obsessive nature, however. Bruce had explained before that even when Nightwing was starting his career as Robin, he'd sit on the roof of Wayne Manor and watch the sunrise. It was a manner of stress relief for the pre-teenaged Dick Grayson who couldn't go on missions with Batman that happened to carry over to the present.

By the time the herbal tea was ready, Edward would sense Raven coming awake. Usually, her emoticlones would start to stir first. Then, Raven herself would wake up, stretch and do her morning routine. After that, she'd head to the kitchen area and snuggle Edward before enjoying the tea. They both enjoyed the White and Green Tea mixture with a touch of honey. There were, of course, many other herbal teas that both enjoyed.

Typically, though, Edward would finish his tea and turn his attention to cooking. However, on this day, Cyborg had offered to cook breakfast. So, as the happy couple was enjoying the tea, the other members of the team came in.

First, Terra and Beast Boy had arrived, wearing their new rings. It turned out that while Edward and Raven were in Hawaii, Beast Boy had been saving his money and surprised Terra with a wedding proposal! She had readily accepted, but, opted to keep the news from Edward and Raven until they returned a few days later.

"Good morning!" Edward said cheerfully, "How's the newest engaged couple doing?"

"We're doing well," Terra replied with a half-smile and a yawn.

Raven gave them a small smile, indicating her happiness for the couple.

"Any coffee made?" Beast Boy asked.

"Pick a flavor," Edward said. He had sprung for an industrial sized Keurig Coffee Maker and a large amount of individual coffees and teas for it. That gave the team a wide variety of stuff for their morning wakeup.

Beast Boy went over and got himself the choice he wanted, Terra did the same. It only took a few minutes for them both to be enjoying a nice hot beverage.

Cyborg was next to come in and he rummaged around until he got the type of coffee he desired. Five minutes later, he was happily drinking some hot chocolate.

Others came in to get their morning "Cup o' Joe" over the space of the next 30 minutes. By then, Cyborg had starting cooking stuff. He had even, finally, given up on getting Beast Boy to munch on some meat. In fact, Terra was starting to eat more vegetarian meals, thus making her new fiancée happy.

Cyborg opted for simple waffles, though. He wasn't in the mood to do much more than that, so, he hurried up and made a batch for everyone, he made a pile of bacon as well for those on the team that enjoyed that tasty treat.

Nightwing had come down from the roof and was setting up the plates and a few other things. He had kept Edward and Raven on "leave" status, but, they were itching to get back into the game. After the rough beginning to the honeymoon, Nightwing wanted to make it up to them.

As the team finished breakfast and were heading to the training center, the alert system went off. They raced to the AI station and as the map of the area in trouble came into view, it was apparent that the team was needed.

"Let's go, Titans," Nightwing said. They all headed to the T-car and within a few minutes, were skimming across the bay and into the city itself.

They arrived at the scene and discovered that Mad Mod and Mumbo were working together to create a lot of chaos.

"Hey, King Moddie," Mumbo said, "Lookie here. The Titans are here to spoil the act."

"Nay!" Mad Mod said, "I won't allow the likes of these spoiled brats to ruin a perfectly good British holiday."

Edward raised an eyebrow, "Did he just call us spoiled brats?"

"I did," Mod said, "Look, me ducky, I'm not one to tell people twice to call me by my rightful title: King Moddie the First."

"King of what?" Edward asked, eyes faintly glowing yellow.

"King of the Colonies, of course," Mod answered.

"You mean here, the United States?" Edward asked, "I don't recall a monarchy taking priority over the duly elected President?"

"That's because Mad Mod doesn't agree that the USA should even exist and insists that he is the rightful Royal to be in charge," Nightwing said.

"If this pipsqueak thinks I will bow down to him as a rightful ruler of this country, then, I'm a naïve Dragon," Edward said.

"Careful, Moddie," Mumbo said, "This guy likes to steal the show, that is if his little purple wench doesn't try first."

"Mumbo," Edward said stonily, eyes starting to glow yellow, "Last time we fought, your parlor tricks weren't effective on me, remember? And, call my wife a wench again and I'll slap the taste right outta yer mouth."

Edward transformed to his mini-dragon form.

The team could see that Edward was steamed, but, still in control.

[Sticks and stones, dear,] Raven soothed, [His insults don't bother me.]

They saw Edward's eyes reverting to normal.

Edward allowed his spines to start to glow white.

Mad Mod, however, flipped the top of his cane and hit a button. A lot of robots materialized and marched forward, towards the team.

"Taking a page out of Slade's book?" Edward supposed, "No matter."

"Titans, GO!" Nightwing said.

The battle started in earnest then. Edward fried several robots with his lightning breath. Cyborg slammed several with his sonic cannon. Beast Boy formed an elephant and crushed others as Terra flattened others with boulders. Nightwing caused others to explode with his exploding disks while Raven pulled others apart with her powers.

Jericho was adapt at hand to hand combat, so, he battled several robots. He couldn't use his possession powers against the robots, though.

Mumbo tried using a spell, but, was interrupted by a blast from Edward. What happened next was a sudden end to the fight. The magic from Mumbo interacted with Edward's lightning, causing a huge explosion! Everyone was tossed and knocked out in the process. Only thing that spared Mumbo and Mad Mod were the remaining robots.

They fled the scene, not caring what the results were of the misfired spell.

[Ten minutes later]

Edward's eyes opened and as he shook his head to clear it, he was stunned.

The other Titans looked as if they were wearing clothes 5 times too large for them and he went to Raven first. He flipped her over and his jaw dropped! She wasn't a nearly 21 year old woman, she was not much older than Melvin! He raced over to the other fallen Titans and the results were the same. Each one was reverted to a child, except for Cyborg, but, he was offline as well

Then, he realized something: He was physically much younger as well. He felt as if he were not much older than his days fighting alongside Xena and Gabrielle.

He pulled out a communicator and said, "Edward to Tower, Emergency!"

Arella appeared on screen and said, "What's wrong?"

"The fight went bad, Arella," Edward said, "Real bad."

"Do you need medical attention?" she asked.

"No…A day care center," Edward replied.

"A WHAT?!" Arella exclaimed. Edward merely flipped the communicator around and showed Arella the results.

"They've reverted to children," Arella said, "Oh, Azar! Now what do we do?"

"They don't know that they've been reverted and I have no idea if they still have their memories, powers or what," Edward said, "I'm bringing them back to the Tower. You might want to call the Justice League just in case."

[What happened?] a childlike voice echoed through his head.

[Raven?] he asked.

[Who is Raven? I'm Rachel,] she said.

"Crap," Edward said to Arella, "I still have the link with Raven, but, I don't think she remembers. She just used her birth name."

"Get them home, fast!" Arella said.

"Have some towels or something ready to cover them as their clothes didn't shrink," Edward said.

He carefully wrapped the Titans' uniforms around the tots to protect their modesty/innocence as best he could. But, little Starfire and little Terra had a problem. Neither had a cape and were, well, out of uniform.

Edward ran to the T-car and popped the trunk. He found a couple of towels and covered the two girls' private parts before carrying them to the car.

[Who are you?] Raven asked. She was obviously unaware of the link.

[I'm a friend,] Edward said, [Just relax Rachel, you'll be ok.]

She opened her eyes and looked at Edward.

She backed away, frightened.

"Do you recognize me?" Edward asked, dreading the answer.

She shook her head. Edward's heart sank and he turned away, lest Raven see the tears that were threatening to fall.

Arella was watching through the open channel and said, "Edward, it'll be OK, we'll figure something out."

Little Raven heard her mom's voice and smiled, "That's mommy!"

"Let me talk to her," Arella ordered. Edward turned around and said, "You're right. It's mommy and she wants to say Hi."

He bent low and showed Raven the communicator.

"Mommy?" she asked.

"Hi, Rachel," Arella said, "Are you OK?"

"I feel strange, Mommy," Raven said.

"What's wrong, baby?" Arella asked.

"I don't know," Raven said and tears leaked out of her eyes.

"You see that nice guy next to you?" Arella asked gently, "His name is Edward. He's a friend of Mommy's. I want you to listen to what he says, all right?"

"Scared," Raven said.

"I won't hurt you," Edward said.

Her emoticlones aren't there, Edward thought, I really gotta hope that this is temporary! It means that the clone Rae's mind created of me is likely gone or out of commission. I don't even think her mirror is a portal now.

"Promise?" Raven asked.

"Cross my heart," Edward said.

"Pinky-Swear!" Raven demanded, holding up her hand.

Edward smiled as he hooked her pinky finger and said, "I swear upon these pinky fingers that I will never hurt you."

Raven giggled, then, started crying.

Edward carefully hugged his now way underaged wife and she stiffened up.

"It'll be OK, little one," he soothed as he rubbed her back gently. Her powers weren't even reacting, though.

"Arella," he whispered, "when did Rae's powers start to manifest?"

"She's Trigon's spawn," Arella whispered, "She had flashes of her powers at the age she appears to be now. But, she was closer to ten when the monks had to start teaching her more about control."

By then, the other kids had started to come to, starting with Nightwing.

"Unde sunt?" he asked. It took Edward a second to realize that Nightwing was speaking in Romanian!

Where am I? Edward translated in his head.

"Cu un prieten," Edward replied. {With a friend}

"Unde sunt părinții mei?" Nightwing asked, looking around.

Where are my parents? Edward translated in his head, then, his face paled as he realized that Nightwing had reverted to before his parents died in that acrobatic accident.

Man, oh man! How do I tell him that his parents are gone? He thought to himself. It dawned on him that all of the Titans would be suffering the same sort of memory loss and just as confused.

Edward looked at Beast Boy…or rather Garfield Logan as a normal person as he woke up and saw that he wasn't in Africa.

"Who are you?" he asked, "Where am I? Where's my parents?!"

Tara woke up next and looked around. Edward remembered her as a kid due to the plane crash she survived. Edward figured that she looked to be within a year of that.

Starfire woke and said, in Tamaranian, "Where's k'norfka? Where am I?"

Edward switched to her language, "You're with a friend, Koriand'r. Galfore is not here, but, he asked me to keep you from harm." He'd have to flash teach her English somehow that wasn't too creepy.

Jericho woke up and Edward had to hide the surprise on his face: His scar was gone!

"Joey?" Edward asked, "You OK?"

"Yeah," he said, "Who are you?"

Edward smiled and said, "I'm Edward…and I'm happy to meet you." He didn't dare tell little Jericho that his voice was destroyed by Slade.

Cyborg was the lucky one, in a way…He didn't need to be covered as his cybernetics protected him from being reverted, but, he was offline. He had given Edward emergency command codes. Edward considered this to be an emergency.

"You kids stay here for a minute," he said, then, translated that into Romanian and then into Tamaranian.

He went over to Cyborg and whispered into his cybernetic ear, "Emergency system reboot, authorization Barnes Gamma 513, enable."

A few seconds later, Cyborg powered up, first his cybernetics came online, and flickering as power hit his systems. His cybernetic eye lit up and then his organic half woke up.

"Yo, Dawg," he muttered, "What happened."

"No time to explain, and, you wouldn't believe me unless you saw it," Edward said, "You're the acting leader of the Tiny Titans."

"Acting leader of the Tiny Ti…SAY WHAT?!" Cyborg exclaimed as he looked at the child forms of his friends.

"Victor," Edward said, "You need to stay calm. The team, except you, has been robbed of their age, powers and memories. Look at me, do I look different?"

Cyborg punched up Edward's baseline and did a quick scan. His jaw dropped, "You're physically at least 2,000 years younger. How did this happen?"

"I don't know," Edward said, "By all rights, when I was barely 1,000 years old, I was fighting alongside my long time honor sister, a Greek woman named Xena…before my self-imposed exile. That's where my memories should be, given the kids here. I guess being a Dragon spared me from the worst of these effects.

"But, here's what I know. Nightwing's reverted to before his parents died and speaks in Romanian. Starfire's lost her ability to speak any Earth languages. Jericho…he's talking now. Raven's back to her youth. Terra is at the age I first met her. Don't call Beast Boy that…He's fully human."

"Mister?" Garfield said, "I'm hungry."

Edward looked and replied, "We'll take you to my home and we'll have a party."

"Uh-uh!" Garfield objected, "Daddy says never to go with strangers."

"Well, I'm Edward, and this is my friend Victor, but, you can call him Cyborg," Edward said, "What's your name?"

"Gawfield," he said proudly.

"Then, we're not strangers, right, Garfield?" Cyborg asked gently.

He scrunched his brow before nodding, "No. We not strangers."

"Arella's been keeping Raven calm," Edward said, soto voce, "But, let's get these kids back to the Tower and fed. I'll teleport to the WatchTower and get some help, you contact Titans East and my son. Tell the Titans East that I'll arrange for Steel City to get covered by one of the Justice League folks, but, I'm calling a Code Red. Or, get hold of some of the Honorary Titans and they can cover Steel City.

"Raven got lucky as her leotard shrank to cover her. Terra and Starfire are covered in some towels I found. Nightwing's cape is covering him and I used Raven's cape to cover Jericho."

"So, they need clothes," Cyborg said, "The infirmary has some child-sized gowns and stuff, mainly in case we had to treat the younger members of the team."

"That reminds me, let Melvin, Timmy and Teether know they are spending some time with us. But, until further notice…The Titans are stood down."

Cyborg nodded, "Agreed."

It took several minutes for the two of them to coax the little Titans into the T-Car and buckled in.

"Kids," Edward said gently, "I know you're all scared right now. We'll get this fixed and everything will be all right."

"Ce?" Dick asked.

"What?" Cyborg said.

"That's what he asked, Cyborg," Edward said, "Nightwing, when he was younger, only knew Romanian. He can't speak English or if he can, it's been suppressed. It means that, for a while, I will have to be a translator. Same for Starfire as she lost her English and Japanese speech."

Edward turned towards little Richard and said, "Nu-ți face griji. Totul va fi bine." Do not worry. Everything will be fine.

"Does David know Romanian?" Cyborg asked as Edward gathered up the clothing.

"I'd have to ask," Edward said, "I know he has the same trait I do with learning languages."

"That brings up another question," Cyborg started to say, but, Edward help up a hand.

"I don't know how they'd react to my other abilities. Terra's brother was OK with it, so were Raven's munchkins, but, now, we'll play it by ear."

Edward was also puzzled…Where were the JCPD? Mad Mod and Mumbo were also gone, but, Edward figured they ran off when that spell backfired.

"Mister?" Garfield asked, "I gotta go!"

Edward tossed the clothes into the trunk and said, "OK, we'll stop on the way to my home and you can go."

"Am să folosesc baia," Richard said. I have to use the bathroom, Edward translated in his head.

Edward told him the same thing he said to Garfield in Romanian as he got into the car. It was a tight fit, though. Cyborg was driving with little Raven in the front as well as Jericho and Edward. Edward carefully reduced his size to fit. The others were squeezed in the back of the T-Car.

"We're going on a fun trip," Edward said, "The car can drive on water as well as on the road."

"We won't sink?" Raven asked.

"No, Rachie," Edward said, "We won't sink."

She smiled up at Edward.

"Let's head for home," Cyborg said and started the T-car. Luckily, there was a Burger Mart nearby and they stopped.

Edward and Cyborg herded the kids into the bathroom. They got lucky in that Terra, Raven and Starfire didn't have to use the bathroom.

Edward considered calling Galfore for some help. He owed a debt to the Titans after Blackfire's failed invasion, but, Edward did not want to take him away from his royal duties.

Edward also got the children something to eat while they were there. He figured that he would be busy for the next couple of hours arranging for Jump City to be protected and trying to track down Mumbo as well as getting supplies for the suddenly pre-teen Titans.

Little Starfire looked at her meal and asked, "What is this?" Edward replied, "It's really good, my bumgorf."

She took a taste and smiled. Edward had put extra mustard on it, knowing how she really liked it as an adult. He didn't put any on her fries until he was certain that she liked the small burger.

Richard was more willing to eat, having probably had burgers on the road. But, how to tell him and Garfield that their parents were dead ate at the old Dragon. He hated telling someone that their loved ones died. Especially when both Richard and Garfield SAW their parents die. Richard had long ago buried his grief with his obsessive tendencies, Garfield had buried his under his jokes.

They continued on to the Tower, after Edward sent Arella a short text saying that they were on their way.

As they approached the Harbor and the kids saw the giant "T", their jaws dropped.

"You live there, mister?" Jericho asked.

"We do, Joey," Cyborg said with a grin. He was grinning cause he, too, wondered about how he sounded before Slade took away Joe's speech for life.

As the T-car approached the waterline, the tires retracted and four rockets came to life there and two rockets from the back fired up to propel the T-car towards the island.

"Neat-o!" Garfield said, clapping happily.

Richard looked at Garfield, not understanding. Edward said, in Romanian, "He thinks this is nice." Richard smiled.

It was five minutes later and they were in the garage. Edward unbuckled the two in front while Cyborg got the kids in the back.

They got the kids in the elevator and Edward punched the button for the main area. They got out a few moments later and Arella met the kids.

Edward felt a flash of sadness from Arella, though and knew why. She was seeing Raven as a child once more, the child that she missed out on due to Trigon. Now, Raven was cleansed from Trigon's evil and Arella held her arms out.

"Mommy!" Raven yelled and ran to Arella. Arella hugged Raven and picked her up.

"I missed you, Rachie," Arella said.

The others started asking where their parents were and Edward was forced to distract them. He was hoping that seeing the Tower would jostle their memories and unlock things.

He also knew that it would take time. He also knew how Robin awakened Raven's memories and hoped that it would work again.

The question, though, was "How to reverse the spell?"

Hi, Everyone,

I'm going to take a break from my other stories for a while and focus on this one.

How will Edward, Cyborg and Arella cope with a tower full of kids who, from their viewpoint, have never met before. How will Arella cope with seeing Raven as a child, heck, how will Edward deal with it? He certainly can't consider her his wife until things are back to normal!

How does Edward tell Richard and Garfield that their parents are long gone.

And, who does Edward recruit to help cover the city while the Titans are out of action? Someone from the Justice League? His son? Titans East or honorary Titans? Or a blend of the teams? Many questions abound, that's for sure!

I will be posting a true Chapter 5 for Terra's Story soon, though. That chapter is pretty much in the can. The Honeymoon Story next chapter will also occupy my thoughts to wrap up another chapter, so, don't be surprised if those are updated pretty soon.

Side note for those not already aware: Teen Titans GO! will make it's premier episode on 4/23/13 at 7:30. A word of warning. If the publicity stills are any indication, the characters have been re-designed as teenagers (not the chiba forms used in "New Teen Titans" shorts.) I don't want to sway any opinions in either direction, though.

Also, Shorty Awards! April 8th starting about 7:30 PM EDT (US time)/11:30 PM UTC. I'm hoping that the Actress category will be featured this year as our own Tara Strong (Raven) walked away with it. It was a blast working with her, even unofficially, on this project. (I got two signed pictures and one of them was personalized! Blasted USPS almost chewed the cardboard envelope as there was a Twilight Sparkle 5 pointed highlighter, also autographed, as well...Green Cap is MIA.)

Happy Passover for the Jews reading this and Happy Easter for the Christians!