Perhaps in revenge for the time he called her in the middle of what was the night for her, Rose called Robin at an equally awful hour to tell him: "Hey, Rob, guess what?"
"Uh—," he began.
"My dad doesn't have a girlfriend anymore." She paused a moment, "He has a fiancée!"
"Um—that's—Congratulations?"
"Yes!" she practically sang. Well, maybe she was just so happy she had to share or burst. "They're going to get married when we get back to the States. It won't be anything fancy. They've both been married before, with the dresses and dress uniforms and receptions, and it didn't last, so since we're going to be in Nevada anyway, they'll probably just stop in Vegas. Yukie says the whole point in getting married isn't having a wedding, it's being married. Which they are already anyway, except for the legal part, so—Robin, are you still there?"
"Yeah. Your dad is getting married. Which is…great! Uh—why are you going to be in Nevada? When are you going to be in Nevada? I thought you were coming back in—um, what day is it?"
"Oh, it's been pushed back again, another ten days or so. Two weeks, say. Yeah, I'm going to have to make up the semester, but it has completely been worth it. Dad has a house in Nevada, but Yukie has to get her stuff from Gotham City—anyway, I'm sending you some pictures from Hakkoda-san—I mean, from the Mount Hakkoda ski resort. It's the weirdest place, with the snow monsters and the ghosts, but it has the sweetest powder that doesn't come on a donut—."
"Snow monsters?" Robin asked.
"Oh, they're not really monsters. We still haven't seen any yokai. They're just fir trees covered in ice and snow off the Siberian jet stream, but they look like they're going to come to life and attack any moment. They call them Juhyo."
"Ghosts," he stated.
"Yeah. They're the spirits of soldiers who died in 1902. Japan is like the most haunted country in the world. Don't worry, they're not dangerous, as long as you stay in the safe zones," Rose assured him.
"Like staying out of Nerima?" he asked.
"Nothing like Nerima," she said. "These guys aren't angry, they're just lost. Anyway, I'm sending them now—," A moment later, he saw that he'd received some photo messages. "There! I've got to go. Talk to you later!"
"Bye," he said. He looked at the time. It was not quite five, but he knew he wasn't going to go back to sleep, so he took a shower instead, taking his time before going down to the Titan Tower's kitchen.
Raven was already there, looking down into a mug of something steaming. "Morning," she greeted him.
"Good morning," he said in return.
"There's nothing much good about it," she said, dourly. "All the signs point to there being a new Elemental soon."
Cyborg came in just in time to catch the last part of that. "Yeah, it seems like they just keep adding new ones to the table," he said, "but I say, if you have to make it in a lab and it breaks down faster than a Land Rover Discovery 4, it's not a real element."
"Uh—what are you talking about?" Raven asked.
"The Periodic Table. You know, iron, oxygen, arsenic—. What are you talking about?"
"Arsenic!" Starfire burbled. "I love arsenic, and I haven't tasted it since I came to Earth. It's so tasty and such a pretty green. Plus, if you have acne, it clears it right up! You know, I bet it would go great on popcorn. Where does one go to buy it here? They never seem to have it in the grocery store."
It seemed like everybody was awake early that morning. "Arsenic is poisonous to humans," he told Kory. "Cy, I think Raven means people like Firestorm or Swamp Thing. People who embody Fire or Earth, things like that."
"Oh, right," Cyborg said, and started rooting around in the refrigerator. "But doesn't that mean one of the old ones has to retire or something?"
"Usually," the half-demoness said, "but the thing is, Elementals aren't really meant to be Elementals longer than a human lifetime. The old Elemental, in this case, has been the Elemental for over a thousand years. That means he, she or it is going to be insanely powerful, insanely dangerous, and insanely—insane. Maybe I could have put that last one better, but that's how it is. After a thousand years, there's not going to be much human left to them. They're probably not going to want to give up the power, and if they're the only Elemental of their kind, they can't be killed. It won't be a nice, peaceful transition, or I wouldn't be getting the ripple effect off of it."
"Okay, it sounds like the sort of thing we ought to look into, then," Robin said. "Which one is it?"
"The Snow Elemental. I know everybody knows about Earth, Air, Fire and Water, but Earth can be plant life, like Swamp Thing, stone, metal or even clay, like Clayface. Clayface is actually an Earth/Water Elemental. Snow is Air/Water. However—since it's been more than a thousand years, nobody knows who or where the old one is," Raven told them.
"Then maybe we could find the new one, and help whoever that is," Cy said, emerging from the depths of the refrigerator with eggs, bacon, sausage, and milk. "How do you know who it's going to be?"
"Usually it runs in families," Raven said, sipping her coffee. "but after more than a thousand years, there could be a lot of descendants, and it brings us back to the problem of not knowing who or where. Another clue is that for whatever reason, the person it's going to be has a really appropriate name. Like, Swamp Thing was Alec Holland. That combines 'Holly', a tree, with 'Land', for earth. It could be a first name, too, like Mera, Queen of Atlantis, who's the water Elemental. 'Mer' means 'Sea'."
"So the new Snow Elemental could be called something like Winters, Frost, Snowdon—," Robin reasoned.
"Or Crystal, Bianca, January, if it's a first name," Raven countered. "Also, there are a lot of other countries out there where they don't speak English and we wouldn't recognize the connection because we don't speak their language."
"What about the one who calls himself Freeze?" Starfire offered. "Would he not be the most likely? Or Captain Cold, Killer Frost—there are any number of others, are there not?"
"Oh, it won't be somebody with cold-based powers already," Raven dismissed the notion. "The elemental powers need a blank slate."
"Do I smell somebody cooking up animal flesh?" Beast Boy joined them. "It better not be anybody I know."
"You mean the one who's doing the cooking or the one who's being cooked?" Cyborg retorted. "Pull up a seat, Greenie. So, Raven, this new Elemental could be anybody, and the old Elemental could be anywhere, and when the moment comes—do they have to be in the same place?"
"I'm not sure. Sometimes yes. Sometimes the power just rips loose and finds the next one, wherever they are. I think this time it'll be yes. Face to face," she speculated. "The old one will be living somewhere cold."
"You're showing us a picture of a snowflake and telling us to find a match in the middle of a blizzard, that's what I'm hearing," Cyborg replied. "So—is the whole planet going to turn into an ice cube, or what?"
"Probably not the whole planet," she said. "Just whatever hemisphere they're on."
"Oh," Robin interrupted, "speaking of somewhere cold, Rose sent me some pics from that ski resort she's at." He took out his phone and brought up the file.
"Rose is in a place which is very cold and snowy," Starfire pointed out, looking at the phone. "Do you think we should alert her to the imminent change in Elementals? It may be that she is nearby where it will happen."
"Nah. It's a big planet with a lot of cold places. What are the odds she's anywhere near it? Besides, she's on vacation, and she has other things to think about. Her father and his lady friend are getting married when they get back to the States." Robin said.
"So they're really getting married, Slade and his lady?" Cyborg asked. "Man, that just seems wrong somehow. I mean, who else in the business do you know of whose relationship's lasted as long as two years and are still going strong?"
"Hawkman and Hawkgirl," Robin offered. "The Elongated Man and his wife—uh, wait, she died, didn't she? Superman and Lois Lane."
"Even giving you the Elongated Man, that's three out of how many? Three hundred people? Anybody want to bet how long she's going to live?" Cyborg asked.
"That is unkind," Starfire scolded. "Just because Slade is not our friend does not mean we should wish harm upon his betrothed, especially since Rose is so fond of her."
"I don't want harm to come to her, Star, it's just that hanging around him is dangerous enough for somebody with powers. She's a civilian. Does she really know what she's getting into?"
"She's not exactly a civilian," Robin put in, "She worked for Mr. Freeze for twelve years, and she's a martial artist. That's how they met, Rose said. Love at first blood."
"And don't forget, I actually met her," Garfield Logan put in. "I know how she reacts to threats. You don't want to be on the wrong end of her baseball bat. I wouldn't say she's the Mama Bear type, though. More like a Tiger Mother."
"What's the difference?" Raven asked, diverted.
"They'll both take your head off with one swipe of a paw," he said, "but you won't see or hear the tiger coming."
"But what is this that is menacing Rose?" Starfire burst out. She had been looking at the pictures on Robin's phone. "Snow monsters?!"
"Oh, those are just snow and ice covered trees," Robin said, looking at the picture of Rose. Her blue-tinted hair stood out in contrast against her bright pink jacket, and she was pretending to be terrified of the admittedly creepy looking snowy pillars around her. "They're called Juhyo. She's really having a good time over there."
"Not all the time," Raven said, "The other week she told me a middle aged businessman offered her the equivalent of a thousand dollars for the panties she was wearing, right then, right there, as is."
"Why would he wish to do that?" Starfire's brow creased. "Even if he wanted to own an identical garment, surely he would prefer it to be brand new."
"This one is an 'I'll tell you later,'" Raven patted her on the arm. "Hey, is this Slade's fiancée?" She pointed to the image of a smiling Japanese woman in an apple red ski jacket.
"Yes, that's Yukime Kuwano," Robin confirmed. "If she's ever in danger and we can help, I say we drop everything and do it. Not just for Rose, but in the interest of keeping Slade sane and stable. We all want that."
"You-key-may," Starfire repeated, drawing out the syllables. "That is an Earth name I have not encountered before. Has it a special meaning?"
"Sorry. Whatever it is, I don't know," he said. "I don't speak Japanese."
It was one of those things which turned out to be extremely obvious in retrospect. Working for Mr. Freeze, loving the winter and snow, being good at winter sports, being named 'Lady Snow', actually calling herself 'Yuki-Onna'—as Raven put it, much later, it was almost like a great big neon arrow sign was pointed right at the next Snow Elemental, blinking on and off day and night. But that was much, much later, and knowing might not have changed a thing.