Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this work. The characters belong to their respective owners.

"Raven, what was Azarath like?"

Robin and Raven sat together in the living room of the Tower, while their three friends were sound asleep in the rooms down the hall. Outside, darkness had fallen, the stars softly twinkling over Jump City, which had been finally rid of the Titan's biggest antagonists a few years after they had vanquished the demon Trigon from the face of the Earth.

Raven slowly blinked in confusion and asked him "Why are you asking?"

He shrugged and told her "I'm just curious, that's all."

"Fine then."

As she glanced at the evening sky outside their window, Raven let out a soft sigh, a faraway look on her face as Robin waited for her to begin.

"Azarath was…it was paradise. A realm where war never harmed anybody, where peace was the law of the land. Nobody got sick, nobody tried to resolve conflicts with hatred and violence. It was a refuge for those of us who were weary of the horrors here on Earth. From what the monks told me, our first leader, the first Azar, gathered many people with that outlook on life centuries ago and took them to this new home where they could finally be granted that which they had craved for so long."

"You should've seen it. All of the buildings there were made of the purest metals, like gold, bronze, silver, and even marble in some areas. The City was filled with these massive skyscrapers that were our homes, and made us feel as if we were never alone…almost as if the buildings themselves were looming over us protectively. These pillars were built in clumps around the City, and in between them, if you looked hard enough, you'd be lucky to find a small, winding path between the buildings that could be used to find some alone time for a while. I guess you could say that these paths were like some of the alleyways here in Jump City."

"And…one of the biggest traditions back on Azarath was to pray and meditate, three times a day, at dawn, noon and dusk, for our peace to touch Earth, for all wars to cease. When it was time to pray, this soft, soothing prayer horn could be heard resounding throughout the city, its clarion call gathering us all to the city's center to meditate together."

Robin nodded along as she spoke, and asked her when she finished "What was your mother like? I've never heard you even mention her."

Raven muttered back "I…I don't want to talk about it."

She suddenly bolted from the room, her cloak whirling about her feet as she walked briskly down the corridor and out of sight, the sound of her door opening and closing echoing slightly. Robin looked down the hall at her direction in shock.

"Well, that was…weird. I guess she really doesn't want to talk about her Mom."

A wave of exhaustion hit Robin, forcing a yawn and a stretch out of him. He headed towards his own room, taking a quick glance at the Titan's group portrait nesting on the table.

Each of them was wearing their typical look, Robin coolly gazing at the camera, Starfire bouncing up and down with exuberant joy, Beast Boy and Cyborg both goofing off with their facial expressions, and of course, Raven solemnly gazing at the camera, devoid of emotion.

In his room, Robin collapsed on his bed, rapidly drifting off to sleep as he dwelled on the mystery of Raven's past.

In his dreams, Robin found himself standing alone in a place blanketed in a thick, white fog decorated with what appeared to be softly falling snow. All around him, massive buildings made of what appeared to be bronze and marble loomed into the grey sky above, their heights extending far beyond the Empire State Building. The streets were paved with a smooth granite-like material that showed no signs of wear. Not a single person was in sight.

He looked around him, bewildered, not knowing where he was. Nothing in his surroundings resembled Jump City.

His ponderings were interrupted by the soft sound of footsteps echoing only a few feet away from him. Robin immediately whirled about and saw a slim figure robed in white calmly walking in front of him.

"Is that…Raven?" Robin wondered, as the figure came to a stop directly in his line of sight. They appeared to be a female, but Robin couldn't tell for sure that she was his friend.

"Hey, Raven!"

He was given no response other than the mysterious person taking a few more steps away from him and further into the fog.

Robin momentarily paused in confusion before shouting at her "Hey, stop for a minute!"

At that, the figure began to dash off into the fog, quickly fading away as Robin gave chase. She slipped in and out of sight as Robin did his best to keep up. The buildings around him began to rise up in tight clusters, leaving little room to maneuver. Up ahead, he heard what sounded like a gate opening and closing. When he finally made it down the lane he was on, he saw an intricate door that looked to be made of silver carved into the marble wall on his right, with a poem in blue scrawled on it:

"Beyond this door lies the Path of Reflection;

Tread this way carefully, for beware:

The most horrific nightmares are one's darkest memories buried too deep."

"Path of Reflection? Whatever, let's go already!"

Robin yanked open the gate and stepped beyond, only to recoil at what he saw.

What looked like a long, blackened scorch mark lay in a jagged design across the area, lacerating the side of the building to his left and extending all across the ground in front of him. There was an acrid scent of smoke and ash around him, as if it was still fresh.

At the same moment he saw the scorch mark, Robin flinched as a soft siren-like noise began to echo from somewhere in the mysterious city, rising and falling slowly in a mesmerizing fashion. He paused, beginning to recall the conversation that he had had with Raven the night before.

"Is this supposed to be the prayer horn she was talking about?" he thought as he hesitantly walked across the scorch mark towards the narrow passage looming between the skyscrapers up ahead. "If it is…then why am I so afraid?"

The noise, if it was the same horn that Raven had mentioned, was failing to calm him; Robin could feel a chill running up and down his spine as the baleful noise droned on and on.

He pressed on into the alleyway, bolting down the cramped passage, desperately hoping that he could find Raven and ask her where he was, and what had happened to this strange place. As he journeyed further into the passage, turning corners as fast as he could, Robin failed to see that a strange darkness was beginning to descend, the meek grey light starting to vanish.

Just as he rounded what seemed like the final bend, the darkness fell completely, and the chilling horn in the distance suddenly erupted into an awful roar that nearly knocked Robin off his feet with its ferocity. His shivers turned into body-wide shuddering as he groped madly for something to illuminate the yawning void all around him.

"What the hell is going on?!"

After a few moments of fumbling around, Robin managed to find a flashlight that he hardly had any use for up until now. With a click, the darkness was barely illuminated, showing that the gold and bronze structure of the buildings around him were beginning to look somehow corroded with something scarlet. The snow around him had become drizzling rain that made a slight hissing sound as it landed all around him. It may have been his imagination, but Robin thought that the whole area was starting to overheat, though he couldn't tell where the source was.

Robin made himself walk further into the passage, and jumped a bit in fright when he registered a sinister creaking not too far ahead of him. He crept up to one of the decaying walls carefully, and moved the beam of light so that it revealed the rotating object. A large circular mural was spinning counterclockwise by itself, an image of a massive red-skinned creature with a twisted visage leering over what looked like the burning remains of a city.

"Trigon…" Robin whispered as he recognized the monstrosity, his shudders intensifying as memories flashed through his mind of a gigantic demon that had nearly wiped out the Earth before Raven had seemingly destroyed him with a burst of her power.

Moving further down the alleyway provided no relief, for just a few feet from the mural stood a deteriorated statue made of what may have once been marble, depicting a white-robed woman in prayer. To Robin's horror, the woman's head had been decapitated clean from her shoulders, and where the head had been, crimson blood was spilling over the rest of her body. Adding to the horror was a new sound that seemed to be emanating from just beyond the statue: a terrible metallic screeching, like nails on a chalkboard amplified to the highest degree.

As he made himself turn away from the statue, Robin shakily continued through the alleyway, registering the hideous scent of burnt blood and metal filling the air around him. The walls of the building, already corrupted with scarlet rust, were beginning to bend and twist in on themselves as he further progressed. Claw marks etched into the walls and splatters of blood began to show up all around him as the roaring horn and awful screeching continued to echo throughout the area.

"Raven, where are you?" Robin shouted into the darkness, anxiety crippling him to the point that he could barely keep himself moving.

At last, he neared the end of the passage, a small cul-de-sac, and a dead end. Robin hesitantly swung his light around the area, and yelled in shock when he registered the body pinned to the wall in front of him.

A corpse was nailed to the ruined bronze wall, clad in what was once an elegant robe, but now burnt beyond recognition. Its face looked almost featureless, like a wax doll melted by fire. The torso of the corpse was ripped open and reduced to a charred, grisly mess, the ribcage and spine poking out through the blackened mass.

Robin quickly retreated a few steps back before he heard other footsteps just behind him. He whirled about and saw a cowed man in an ashen gray robe approaching him with his head bowed. Utterly confused, Robin waved the light beam over the man, prompting the stranger to look up at him.

The seemingly crippled man had a face twisted in unspeakable agony. He reached out towards Robin with arms that looked twisted, and when the man opened his mouth, instead of any coherent words, a pained scream erupted.

Without warning, the man burst into flames, hot fire pouring out of his mouth and eyes, his screaming joined by dozens of others stumbling into the passageway's dead end. Men, women and children hobbled into the cul-de-sac, shrieking in pain as they clawed at the air and clutched themselves, trying in vain to put out the fires consuming their bodies. All of them were bending and twisting as they moved towards Robin, almost like embers dancing in a fireplace. The stench of rotting, burning flesh, combined with the putrescent smell of the rain mixing with the blood in the area began to choke Robin as he desperately searched for an escape route.

The blackened sky slowly turned an infernal orange as all over the darkened city, massive pillars of fire began to consume the buildings, the metal screeching as the buildings collapsed in on themselves and rapidly decayed. The whole city seemed to be turning into Hell itself. From every direction, the roaring air horn, the bellowing flames, the screeching of the twisting metal and the screams of the people blended into an utterly nightmarish cacophony.

The mob of burning humans closed in on him, and just as Robin was about to scream her name for help, they all at once began to wail "Raven! Raven! RAVEEEEEEEEN!"

"RAVEN!"

Robin bolted upright in his bed, soaked in sweat and panting heavily. He yanked the sheets off his bed in a fury and dashed down the halls towards Raven's room, yearning for some comfort and help after his horrible nightmare.

When he got to the door of her room, he knocked on the door heavily, but no answer was given. He tried to yank it open, but as always, her door was locked tight. Robin growled in frustration and nearly ripped the metal covering off of the keypad next to the door, pounding in the key code and making the door finally slide open.

Greeting him was a group of four astonished men in dark red robes, one of them wearing what looked like a painted skull on his face. The men were carrying a long bundle in their arms that was covered in a black cloth with blood-red runes etched all over it. Next to them was a swirling red portal, and it was evident that they were in the process of going through it to whatever lay on the other side.

The man with the painted skull spat "Arella!" at the sight of Robin in the doorway, whose confusion quickly turned to anger at the realization that the bundle in their arms had to be none other than Raven herself. Robin snarled at the intruders and slammed his fist on the alarm button hidden in the doorway, causing the warning system to blare into life throughout the Tower.

He made a mad run towards the men, who quickly moved towards the portal, taking Raven in their arms. Their leader sneered and waved his hand at Robin in an almost dismissive fashion, sending a violet wave of energy crashing into the boy, and sending him hurtling backwards into his comrades, who had just come down the corridor in time to see what was happening. All three of them were still in their pajamas, not prepared for the incursion happening in their home.

"Stop, intruder!" Starfire yelled as she sent blasts of green energy hurtling towards the men. Her blasts were easily deflected by the skull man, who cackled as he and his fellows successfully fled through the red portal, which dissipated with a hiss soon after they disappeared.

The four Teen Titans looked at the spot where the portal had been, a myriad of emotions raging through them all as they gasped for air. Robin tried to stand, and fell back to the ground with a grunt, alarming his friends.

"What the hell did they do to you man?!" Beast Boy shouted as he and Cyborg helped Robin stand up, carefully wrapping his arms around their shoulders and doing their best to stop him from stumbling again. Starfire bit her lip in worry and followed them as they walked slowly to the living room.

Robin groaned as they laid him down on the couch and lifted off his nightshirt. The spot where the man's blast had hit him was marked by a hideous black and purple bruise that made Robin yelp in pain when his teammates touched it.

He grimaced and told them about his nightmare, and what he had seen when he had tried to find Raven for guidance.

"When I got to her room, I found her wrapped up in that weird cloth, and for some reason, she wasn't doing anything to resist. I don't know if they drugged her, knocked her out, or bound her someway else, but they definitely managed to subdue her somehow. And I don't know how the hell we're supposed to find her now. Heck, I don't even know how they managed to creep up on her, even if she was asleep. This is all happening way to fast, and that damned nightmare is still haunting me too."

Cyborg shrugged his shoulders helplessly and told him "Look man, don't blame yourself too much here, none of us had a clue that this would be happening. Right now, we need to treat this bruise or whatever it is you've got, and we need to start looking for clues on Raven's whereabouts."

"I will go and find the first-aid kit!" Starfire said, zooming down the hall while the three boys remained collapsed in dejection.

Starfire returned a moment later, carrying their large box of medicine and bandages, yanking out a cream for burns. When she tried to apply it to Robin's wound, he screamed in pain and arched his back, frightening his friends.

"Dammit, what should we do?" Cyborg asked them as Robin tried to calm himself down. "If we don't get this thing treated, Robin could be in serious trouble!"

Before anybody could offer any opinions, the soft sound of flapping wings made them pause. From down the corridor, a small, glowing dove was gently flying towards them, its light illuminating the darkness in the building. It was slightly larger than the average birds that took to flying around the top of the tower during the day, and its color was a pristine, pure white. Robin realized that it had the exact same shade of white to it as the robed woman from the nightmare. It landed on his torso and bowed its head, closing its eyes and remaining utterly still as its light began to slowly expand.

To their shock, Robin's wound began to rapidly disappear as the aura surrounding the bird enveloped it completely. Within a matter of seconds, Robin's body was as good as new. The dove hopped off as Robin shakily stood up, gawking at his bare torso and wondering what had just happened.

"Dude…what…?" Beast Boy tried to speak, his jaw wide open in awe at what they had just seen happen.

The dove cocked its head at them all, and flew towards the middle of the room, flapping its wings calmly as it seemed to focus on the spot just in front of it. Once again, its aura expanded, and with a nod of its small head, the energy coalesced in front of it into a glimmering portal that perfectly resembled the one the Titans had seen in Raven's room.

As the portal swirled softly, the dove flew into it, leaving the Titans to gawk at the series of marvels happening around them. Robin hesitantly walked towards it, inspecting it carefully, remembering the first half of the dream, and the strange female figure who had walked into his sight for barely a minute.

"This has something to do with that lady…I'm sure of it. If that's Raven, then this dove just gave us the chance to find her. No doubt, this portal…it'll take us all to that place. Azarath."

He turned to his friends and told them all firmly "Guys, get ready to go. I want us all back in this room within the next 5 minutes if possible ready to depart through this portal. We're gonna go find Raven."

They all uttered baffled noises, Starfire saying back to him "But Robin, we must be careful! We do not know where this odd swirly object will take us!"

Cyborg chimed in, retorting "And look dude, we don't know who we're up against! You know what that man did to you! Hell, we could get ourselves killed by these people! Aren't you afraid at all?!"

"Please, man, slow down for a second, you know they're right!" Beast Boy begged him.

Robin sighed and bowed his head in acknowledgement of their warnings, and said softly to them "You better believe that I'm just as afraid as you guys are. But we can't let fear of the unknown stop us from rescuing our friend. You know that. Even if Raven was paralyzed with fear, if she knew that we were kidnapped, she would do everything in her power to get us back. We owe it to her as her comrades and friends to go find her."

The other three Titans grimaced and finally nodded in agreement, turning to run down to their rooms and make hasty preparations to leave. Robin crept back to his room and dressed up in his usual uniform, but also adorning it with a handgun he had purchased for emergencies, and stocking his belt with a few boxes of ammunition.

He gave the weapon a look of disgust, thinking "Usually, I would never resort to this sort of thing…but I have a sense that ultimately, what we're standing up against won't be remotely human."

When he returned to the living room, he saw his friends fully dressed and gathered around the glowing white portal, which hadn't faded away one bit. He looked at all of them and nodded, feeling an unmistakable dread creeping over them all as they moved towards the portal, its energy humming faintly.

Just before he walked through, Robin realized that their group portrait had somehow disappeared from the table in the middle of the room. He deemed it unimportant for the time being and shrugged it off, determined to focus solely on finding Raven.

"Let's go."

Robin led them into the portal, which crackled as they moved through it. There was a momentary flash of light, and then, they all emerged on the other side, gazing hesitantly around them at their new surroundings.

Robin was back in the starting point of the nightmare, the metal skyscrapers looming far up above them all, with the same fog and snow blanketing their sight on all sides. His friends were gawking at the sight, unsure of how they should take it in. The portal fizzled away behind them, leaving them alone within the strange place.

Beast boy muttered "Dude, this feels so unreal. So…dreamlike, even. And where is everybody else? Shouldn't a city this big have people walking all over it?"

Starfire whispered "I do not like the feeling of this place, my friends. I believe that, despite the size of this place, we just might be the only people walking around right now."

The fog swirled slowly all over the city, obscuring their line of sight to only the barest outlines of the buildings and what lay a few feet in front of them. Cyborg glanced around them and shuddered.

"This is way too quiet. Not to mention, this place is huge! How are we supposed to find Raven here when we don't even know where to start?"

A murmur of agreement passed between Starfire and Beast Boy as Robing thought quickly about what to do. A map seemed out of the question, and none of his devices on hand could work efficiently in their foreign surroundings. He looked down the road in front of them, trying to retrace his footsteps from the nightmare.

"Guys…" he said softly, "I think we're in Raven's home world. The place she called 'Azarath'." Robin steeled himself and knelt into a running position.

"Follow me" he told them abruptly, bursting into a dash down the street with his friends running behind him and yelling for him to slow down.

He led them down the smaller side street that he had chased the robed stranger down, and barreled towards where the silver door had been in the dream. To his disappointment, when they arrived at the spot, the door had disappeared. What had been the entrance to an alleyway in his dream was now nothing more than part of the city, nothing beyond the wall except the side of a building, no sign that anything resembling an alley had ever existed at that spot.

"Damn it!" he spat, snarling in irritation and having to restrain himself from punching the marble wall in fury.

Beast Boy tried to calm him down, telling him "Hey dude, chill, we'll just have to look for another starting point, that's all."

Before Robin could snap at him, Starfire interrupted them both, hesitantly asking them "Um, perhaps I am going crazy, but I see something written here on the wall."

They all walked closer to the wall, and sure enough, in place of the note marking the alleyway Robin had tread as the "Path of Reflection", a longer message had been written in the same blue color.

"The Path has been closed, but fret not, for a new way has been opened to guide you. Though the road is treacherous, at its end, you will find that which you so desperately seek.

To the four winds you must go, to find four pieces of truth that shall overcome the corrupting lies.

To the West the Eagle must fly, to the den of knowledge and the beginning of torment, to unleash his grace against the emotional ravages of the past.

East is the path that the Lion will take, and it is there, deep underground where shadows lie in wait, that courage must be used to light the way.

In the recesses of the South, the Ox will find great use for his strength, in a place of contradictions, of weapons in a place of peace.

And at the end, the Human will journey to the uppermost reaches of the North, to the shelter of truth, and use his humility to undo the rampage within.

Fight and conquer at the speed of the wind, before darkness utterly blots out the remaining light."

The four Titans stood in confusion as they all tried to process the meaning of the message. Cyborg slowly spoke up first.

"Well, I'm guessing that somebody, maybe even Raven, left this to guide us to her somehow. I think each of us are supposed to go different ways to find these…uh, 'pieces of truth'. Seeing as I'm the strongest, I'm assuming that I'm the 'Ox'."

Starfire looked closely at the message and muttered "Well, Robin, I am assuming that, because you are already named after one bird, you are the 'Eagle' in this message."

"Uh, I guess. But what about you two?"

Beast Boy and Starfire looked at each other sheepishly and tried to work out the remaining clues.

"I mean, both of us are brave…" Beast Boy said, scratching his head thoughtfully. "But honestly Star, I remember how you beat your sister's ass so hard, and didn't bow down in front of her. You're the bravest out of us all, really. You're definitely the 'Lion' here."

Starfire blushed profusely as Beast Boy went on.

"But…I guess that means that I'm the 'Human'. But why me? Not to be funny, but humility really isn't something I'm known for, if you catch my drift."

Robin shrugged indifferently and said "Well, it works for me. Are you guys ok with splitting up?"

The other three nodded carefully. All four of them were understandably nervous, seeing as they were about to embark on a journey through a massive city potentially filled with hidden dangers lying in wait.

Cyborg glanced at his friends and told them "Don't forget to use your watches and update each other. The last thing we need is for somebody else to disappear after what just happened."

The group nodded solemnly and made their way towards the main road. As they walked a little further, they came to a crossroads splitting off in four different directions. The four Titans waved at each other and dashed off into the fog, each headed towards their respective directions, guided only by Starfire's intimate knowledge of directions and the desire to find Raven as soon as possible.

"Hang in there, Raven!" Robin thought desperately as he ran with all his power down the path. "We're coming for you!"