Rita and Karen piloted the borrowed Titans flyer to Rita’s private island firs thing the next day.  When they landed, they saw Rita’s own flyer there on the beach, where Cliff’s Rita had left it the day before.

“That’s weird,” Rita said.  “How did I get to the mainland with my flyer still here?”

“Maybe you set it for some kind of autopilot return?” Karen said.

“That must’ve been it,” Rita said.  “Wish I could remember it, though.”

Once the flyer landed, Karen flew up into Rita’s line of sight.  “Let me go ahead before you start unloading,” Karen said.  “That was we’ll know what most needs doing first.”

“OK,” said Rita.  “I’m just going to enjoy my beach while you’re gone.”

Karen buzzed up to the house.  It still struck her as more of a mansion, but how much of that was the house’s size and how much was her own size, she wasn’t sure.  She zipped through a vent and went inside.

As Karen zipped through the house, she was impressed by how clean and organized everything looked.  While that was like Rita, she expected at least a little bit of dust, especially in the tropical climate, yet she found nothing.

Then Karen buzzed into Rita’s room and almost fell to the floor in shock.  There, sitting on the bed, was Rita -- the adult Rita she had been a Doom Patrol teammate with, not the teen she had left on the beach.

Rita looked up and smiled.  “Karen!” she said.  “What a surprise!  It’s so good to see you!”

Karen actually flew slightly backward in confusion.  “Rita?!” she said.  “But, how --  I left you on the beach!”

Rita looked confused.  “What are you talking about?” she said.  “I’ve been in the house all morning.”

“But I flew here with a you who was found as a puddle of goo on a beach,” Karen said.

The adult Rita processed the information and reached a conclusion almost instantly.  “Blast!“ she said.  I thought that part of me was dead!  Now I’ve got to re-merge.”  She dove out the window, growing as soon as she was through the opening.

Meanwhile, Cliff was walking up the beach thinking about recent events when he saw a second flyer there.  He recognized the flyer as being a Titans ship due to Gar, Vox and Bumblebee’s involvement with that team.

The Cliff saw a figure emerge from the Titans ship.  He recognized it as Rita in a bikini, but she looked different somehow.  He picked up his pace, calling out, “Rita!”

The teen Rita pivoted.  Her eyes widened as she threw open her arms, growing as she ran.  “Cliff!”  she shouted.

The girl scooped Cliff up into the air, squeezing him, shrinking back down as she did.  “Cliff, it’s so good to see you!” young Rita said.  “We’ve been trying to -- OWW!“  She pulled back.  “What was that for?”

Cliff was totally befuddled.  He had run the low-level shock out of habit, but it was obvious this girl who looked like what he could now tell was a much younger version of Rita had no idea about that.  What was going on?

Rita picked up on Cliff’s expression immediately.  “Are you OK?” she asked.

Behind him, Cliff heard a giant-size voice roar, “Cliff, get out of the way!”  Behind her was Karen, flying and yelling, “Rita!  Wait!”

Cliff instinctively backed up.  Young Rita saw an older version of herself charging straight at her.  She was so stunned she didn’t move.

The adult Rita enlarged her right fist and slammed it full-force into the teen Rita.  The impact knocked the stunned and confused girl back into a tree, where her head hit hard.

Karen, confused a fearing for whichever one of these two was her friend, was sobbing.  “Rita, please!  Hold up!” she cried to the adult.  “I told you her story!”

Adult Rita looked back at Karen.  “Don’t you get it?’ she yelled.  “This Rita is part of me that got left behind.  She’s just like me, and she needs to be reabsorbed!”

“She’s not just like you!” Karen shouted.  “Not anymore!”

Teen Rita was rubbing the back of her head.  “Ow!” she said.  She pulled her hand forward.  It was covered in blood.

Adult Rita shrank to normal size.  “Blood?” she said.  She looked to Cliff, who was already moving over to the teen Rita.

Cliff sniffed the liquid, touched a finger to it and put it on his artificial tongue.  He quickly scooped the teen Rita up.  As he started running for the house, he said to his Rita, “It’s real.  The blood’s real.  She needs medical attention -- fortunately, stuff that can be done here, not like a hospital.”

“Real blood?” the adult Rita said, standing in shock.  “How can it be real blood?”

Karne placed a tiny hand on her adult friend’s shoulder.  “I’ll explain on the way,” she said.  “Let’s go take care of the other you.”

Under the circumstances, Gar and Raven made the trip via her powers, beacon or no beacon.  They were there within a minute of when Karen called.

Teen Rita’s head wound was superficial.  Like many such head wounds, it bled profusely, but was easily addressed once the bleeding was stopped.  With his years of experience, Cliff had recognized this immediately.

The two groups of Doom Patrollers and Raven compared notes and soon pieced together what had happened.

Adult Rita was sitting, leaning forward.  “So, there are two of me now,” she said.

“Not exactly,” young Rita said.  “I’m a lot like you, but we’re different now.”

“Yeah,” said adult Rita.  “I’m Rita Farr 2.0, and you’re rita Farr 3.0.”

“Stop that,” said Gar, getting in the adult Rita’s face.  “You’re both Rita Farr.  In every way that matters, you” -- he pointed to the adult -- “are the same woman who adopted me.  You are my mom, and you are rita Farr.”

Gar turned to the teen Rita.  “And you are some kind of freaky, Doom Patrol-ish twin sister to her, and kid sister to me,” he said.  “And you’re Rita Farr, too.”

Teen Rita grinned and nodded.  “Right,” she said.  She looked to the other Rita.  “I’m Elasti-Girl, and you’r Elasti-Woman.

Adult Rita stared at the floor.  “Rita,” she said without shifting her gaze, “I’m really sorry about hitting you, hurting you.  I thought you were still just a part of me, one that needed to be shocked back into being able to rejoin me in here.”

Elasti-Girl rubbed the back of her head.  “It’s OK,” she said.  “I might’ve done the same thing … and, in a sense, I did.”

Both Ritas chuckled.  Elasti-Woman looked up grinning at her younger counterpart.

“Actually,” Elasti-Woman said.  “I’m kind of glad you’re all here.  Cliff and I have some news.  We’re -- “

“Wait,” Cliff said.  “Green Bean, this technique worked on Elasti-Girl.  Do you think it would work on my Rita, too?”

“It should,” Gar said.  “What let it work is common to both Ritas.  The chemicals from Chemo apparently are what put the gaps in Elasti-Girl’s memory and limited her maturing to adulthood. So Elasti-Woman would probably become an adult woman again, but it ought to work the same way otherwise.”

Cliff glanced at Rita, then turned his back to her.  “Then you gotta do this, Rita.  You gotta be human again.”

Elasti-Woman stood up.  “Cliff?  But what about --”

“There’s nothing to ‘what about’ about,” Cliff said.  “This is your chance to be human again -- really human.  That’s what you always wanted.  I can’t get in the way of that.  I can’t and I won’t.”

“But, Cliff --”

“I’ll make it easy for you,” Cliff said.  “The engagement’s off.  I’m gone.  Go be human again.”  With that he walked out of the room.

While all the others stood or flew in stunned silence, Gar quietly said, “Engagement?”

It was all too much for Elasti-Woman.  Normally tough as nails, her world had been rocked too roughly in the last hour.  She dissolved into shocked sobs.