S I L E N T S U N R I S E

Word Count: 3786

Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm just a fan.

A/N: I haven't seen or written Teen Titans in a very long time, so if anything is OOC or seems ridiculous (aside from the bit that is obviously crack) don't hesitate to let me know, but please don't rave at me if I've gotten anything incorrect.

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Though not very late in the day, it was dark, shades of red and black coloring the sky between the grey storm clouds overhead. Save for he and his teammate, the streets of the city were deserted—well, that was if you didn't count the stone statues scattered about. They were all real people turned to stone unknowingly, unwittingly during everyday moments of their lives. Someone was walking a dog, someone else was shopping, and yet another was laughing with friends. These were all innocent people subject to a serious threat.

Robin wondered if they even knew they had been turned to stone. Did they have any sort of consciousness within their imprisonment? He hoped not. That would be terrible, knowing you were trapped but completely unable to correct the situation. Helplessness was one of the worst things he could imagine.

He ran with her, though he wasn't sure where she was headed… if she was headed anywhere in particular. They just needed to find a place to hide out for a little while until they were able to come up with a suitable plan of action. They'd been running for quite a while, so he didn't see any imminent dangers ahead and wasn't extremely worried for their safety, but just looking at her… Well, it was obvious Raven was more than anxious to find a haven.

It'd probably be easier for her to look for one without him, he mused. After all, she could fly and teleport, whereas he was confined to his own two legs and whatever automobile he could find. Even if he suggested it, she wouldn't leave him. It was a stupid idea anyway, splitting up, but still. Their enemies were after her. Robin was only in the way.

"There's really only one place I can think of going," she said. "Though, it'd probably be best if I teleported us there." It was almost as if she knew exactly what he was thinking.

"You shouldn't waste your energy," he replied, to which she quickly turned her head and glared as she paused her running. He almost tripped over himself in his attempt to stop. Sometimes Raven could really be terrifying. "I mean, I don't think we'll have much time to rest and I—"

"Robin, I will be fine. Besides… I'm more worried about what's going to happen to you." She looked away from him for a moment, her face blatantly displaying her disgruntled emotions. He might not know exactly what she was imagining, but that wouldn't stop him from trying to cheer her up. Robin figured one of them had to continue being hopeful and if that had to be him, so be it.

He placed his hands on her shoulders and reassured her, "I trust you."

She looked up at him, her blue eyes searching his face (though he wasn't sure what all she'd find with his mask in the way), and he could feel his breath catch for a reason he couldn't quite place. Maybe it was because her lack of confidence scared him (even if she didn't know it herself, Raven was easily the embodiment of perseverance). Or maybe it was she was staring at him so very intently he thought she might decide he wasn't worth it and just leave him there (though why he'd thought up that was eluding him as well). Robin almost jumped when she sighed audibly, but caught himself and merely pulled his hands back so she wouldn't notice.

"Alright," she relented, holding out her hands before him. "Take my hands… Also, you might want to close your eyes."

Doing as he was told, Robin soon after found his mind whirling as colors and lights and smells and feelings swirled around him, through him (he found it easier to concentrate when he followed her suggestion and shut his eyes) and he felt his body take on different forms before they arrived at their destination. It was true that she had teleported him and the rest of the Titans before, but it was never something he had completely gotten used to. Granted, unlike Beast Boy, he could keep his complaints to himself.

It didn't take long for him to identify where she'd taken them. After all, it hadn't changed much from how they'd left it. Rocks and dirt strewn everywhere, stone statues broken and their pieces scattered across the room, no roof over their heads after an incredible cave-in—this place of origin resembled the destruction throughout the world.

"This is..."

"Yeah," Raven affirmed, walking towards a fallen stone statue that, at second glance, Robin recognized as a hand. Two of the fingers had broken off, but it was certainly designed as a hand. She ran a hand across its surface before speaking again. "I'm not sure what all is left for us to do. To turn everyone back from stone, we have to defeat Trigon, but with only the two of us… it's unlikely."

"There must be something—anything!—that we can do! I'm not giving up until he's dead. Or I am." Robin wasn't as confident as he sounded and he knew it, but he had to put hope back into her somehow. She was silent for a while, in thought, and he took the time to uncover a solution himself. All he could think of was to fight, but he knew that Raven was right. The two of them wouldn't be enough against Trigon.

"There might be a spell I can cast to bring the others back," she said quietly. It was almost a whisper, as if she didn't want to give him another reason to believe they could win, as though the idea of bringing Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy back was too much of a temptation, too much risk to their safety. He moved closer towards her, in his own little attempt at compassion. With Raven, though, that was always a difficult road to maneuver. "We would need to go back and look through my spell books, but with living thing chasing us, we probably won't get very far. And that's if they're even still intact…"

"Couldn't you teleport us there?" he asked tentatively. "Just to check? I mean, if there is a way to bring them back, I think we should at least try to." She turned around, studying him once more, her eyes roaming across his face as he stood before her, sympathy exuding from his very core.

"I don't get it."

"… what?"

"All of this—the destruction of the world, our friends turning to stone, Trigon even being here—everything is because of me and yet… yet, you're still here. It's all my fault and you're still here, trying to fix it all."

"Raven, that doesn't matter." He didn't understand why she was losing her faith so quickly. Before, during any other mission with the Titans, she was never the first to give up. "He might still be here even if you hadn't willingly sacrificed yourself. Raven, without you, there's no way we'd even be able to get through this."

A slow clap coming from a single pair of hands within the darkness behind the pair stopped any protests Raven was on the verge of making, and in turn any other encouraging words Robin had stocked up. With wide eyes, the two of them took defensive stances, facing the imminent threat before them. The sound of one hand on the other echoed throughout the dark room, a taunting voice in a lonely world. And then, the mysterious stranger stepped out from the shadows.

"My, my," he said, his voice like venom in Robin's ears. "How… touching."

"Slade," the boy wonder sneered, narrowing his eyes and widening his stance.

"Oh? Have I ruined the moment?"

"You always did have bad timing," Robin responded, running straight at his adversary, grasping his staff and extending it. He brought it over his head in a large swing downwards, directly aimed for Slade's head. His opponent dodged—unsurprisingly—and took a hold of the staff himself, using brute force to throw the staff and the boy to the side.

"As entertaining as you are, I'm not here for you today," he said as Robin crashed against the rock wall, pain shooting through his back. His body fell to the floor as Slade took a few steps closer to Raven. She in turn used her telekinetic powers to throw a few of the still together stone structures at their opponent, but judging from the way Slade too easily reformed their molecules, it seemed that wouldn't be enough. Getting back on his feet, Robin made eye contact with Raven, who didn't even have to nod to tell him she understood the plan: distract Slade as long as she could.

"Why are you here?" she asked, her glare as terrifying as ever as she stood her ground. For as frightened as she had been moments earlier, Robin certainly had to give her credit for being one of the bravest people he'd ever met. "Trigon's got you doing his dirty work again?"

"Oh, you silly child," the man replied, shaking his head. Robin could almost feel his smirk, even if he couldn't see it underneath his mask. "My army got rid of him about a week ago."

"Army?" She voiced the words Robin was too shocked to even mouth. How had Slade gathered up an army when just about everyone, save for the three in this room, had turned to stone? He hoped prolonging their fight wouldn't be a huge mistake. Robin needed to know what Slade had up his sleeve. "What army?"

Robin moved for higher ground, climbing rock after rock as quietly as he could as he prepared for an aerial assault. That would be the easiest way to bring Slade down physically and then altogether to win the fight. That is if the man didn't pull any of his normal tricks. As the boy thought about this, his adversary brought his hands above him and snapped his fingers, a quick gust of smoke surrounding him. He reached the top of the rock pile and stealthily peered down as Slade was no longer the Slade he knew.

He was still evil, but he was now wearing a fluffy, pink bunny suit.

A fluffy, pink bunny suit.

The two Titans seemed to have the same thought as they both froze on sight, the looks on their faces giving away their innermost thoughts. Their arch foe was wearing a fluffy, bunny suit.

"My army of rabbits, of course," Slade said, his tone so sinister, it sent chills up Robin's spine. Yet, the entire feeling was completely nonsynchronous with the facts at hand. And only that made his threats a little less convincing.

Raven relaxed her defensive stance, cocking an eyebrow. "Rabbits," she stated, slipping into her usual condescending tone of voice. She blinked. "Is this the part where fear is supposed to crawl up my spine?"

Slade chuckled, completely unconcerned. His laughter echoed throughout the room and didn't give Robin any comfort whatsoever. He brought himself to his feet, prepping his assault when Slade snapped his fingers again and shouted, "COME FORTH MY RABBIT ARMY."

Suddenly, out of almost nowhere, a swarm of medium-sized rabbits of all shapes and colors appeared in the room around them. Some of them snarled at Raven, others eyed her suspiciously, while others still looked straight to their… bunny-suit clad master for directions, directions which he gave almost immediately after they had assembled. "MULTIPLY AND TAKE HER DOWN! But don't kill her – we need her for phase two."

Robin, having had enough of this madness (had he officially gone insane after the end of the world?), jumped from the rocks, his staff high above his head as he swung it as hard as he could, aiming for the top of Slade's head. It seemed the man in the pink bunny suit knew he was coming as Robin felt himself thrust aside. As he flew across the room, he spotted Raven fighting off some very rabid rabbits; some were on fire, some were biting at her legs, some were even flying! His astonishment ceased when he slammed into yet another rock wall.

"ROBIN!" Raven screamed and he perked up. He was fine—just a little bruised—but to ease her worry he stood up, ready to take another shot at Slade (though he was curious as to how the man had gotten so strong in such a short amount of time). Raven was using her powers to shove rabbit after rabbit aside, and he quickly noted she was trying to make her way to him…

But she was better off looking out for herself, he noted as a rather large neon-yellow rabbit creeped up behind her.

"RAVEN!" he shouted, attempting to run and protect her. He soon found that he couldn't move. His legs felt as though they were on fire, yet oh so heavy and unmovable. Robin looked down and saw that his feet had turned to stone! There was a red flame slowly crawling up his legs, leaving his body in a stone imprisonment behind it.

Even despite this, there was only one thing on his mind: Raven's safety.

"BEHIND YOU!"

But it was too late. As soon as Raven moved an inch to see what he was talking about, the obnoxiously colored rabbit bit into her shoulder and she fainted almost immediately. He faintly heard her mutter his name, but Slade's demonic chuckle drowned out her voice.

"Silly children," the man chided, hopping over to a distressed Robin. "See how easy it was for me to take what I wanted? I should have gathered a rabbit army years ago."

Robin rolled his eyes, trying in any way he could to get the fire to stop. He patted it down furiously with his hands, but that did nothing save for make the flames spread to his fingertips. Even worse, it seemed that the faster he moved, the faster the flames devoured him.

"Soon you will be completely made of stone," Slade taunted, standing over Robin and running a rabbit paw hand over his head. The boy wonder felt his breathing catch – the stone was catching up to his chest quickly. "And I will have won."

"Ra…ven…" Robin choked out before his lungs turned. She was the last person alive. She was the world's last hope.

And then he blacked out.

…

Robin shot awake, his eyes wide, his breathing heavy. He could feel his heart beating a mile a minute and he moved a hand to his chest as though that would slow it down. Forcing himself to take large, slow, deep breaths, Robin went through the scene in his head. He and Raven had been running through town… which had looked exactly like it had a few weeks ago when her father, Trigon, had taken over the world. They had been running and then they'd ended up fighting Slade who had… an army of bunnies. And was wearing a bunny suit.

What in the world? What had he eaten before going to bed?

How is Raven?

Completely on impulse, he got out of bed and left his room, headed straight for her room, but it wasn't until he was standing outside her door that he realized that it had been his nightmare. She was probably sound asleep in her bed, unaffected by Robin's lingering trauma. He shook his head at his foolishness, making to turn, but then Raven's door opened and out walked the girl in question.

"Raven," he said, surprised. Looking her over, he noted that she looked just about as disgruntled as he had felt after waking up from that terrifying yet… strange dream. She jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Robin!" she exclaimed, and then paused to take a breath. "What… what are you doing up so late?"

She was trying to cover up the fact that something had happened to her. After going through all he had with her, it was too easy for him to tell when she was upset. However, knowing how adverse she was to discussing her feelings, he would never push her into divulging anything to him. Not unless she scared him… or worried him to the point of death.

"I… I had a bit of a nightmare," he admitted. Even though he wouldn't push her into telling him what her true thoughts were, he still had a knack for being nosy when it came to his friends, and he slyly added, "What about you?"

"I…" she trailed off, looked down, and then met his gaze. "I had a nightmare as well."

"Yours didn't happen to involve rabbits, did it?" he asked, trying to make a bit of light of the situation. Judging from her appearance, the nightmare had shaken her up a bit.

"… Rabbits?" she asked, her voice soft.

"Yeah, I don't know. We were fighting Slade and he had—"

"An army of rabbits…"

"Yeah…" He cocked his head to the side, scrunching his eyebrows. "How'd you know that?"

"Robin we…" she trailed off again, but he understood almost immediately. The two of them hardly ever really needed to exchange words, after all.

"Oh."

There was a long silence between them, one where Robin wondered what he should say, what he should do. Raven wasn't a very affectionate girl (nothing like Starfire, who clung to whoever she was talking to as quickly as she could) but he wasn't really sure how else to approach the situation. He wouldn't go as overboard as Starfire, of course, but he could offer her an ear to talk to.

"Raven—"

"I'm—"

They spoke at the same time (so their bond was still there after all this time) and he smiled because he thought it was amusing. She didn't return the favor, instead choosing to finish her statement.

"I'm going to get some tea."

"I'll join you."

She didn't say anything as a reply, merely turned and walked down the hall towards the Titans' living area, but he knew not to take that as her telling him not to come. Raven of all people made it clear when someone was unwanted, though that was usually reserved for Beast Boy. He followed her down the hall, neither saying a word, Robin wanting to. He at least wanted to give her a bit of encouragement, though he still wasn't sure what to tell her.

As she moved to the kitchenette, he sat himself at one of the stools by the island, watching her as she gathered everything she needed to brew her tea. He'd never had one of her concoctions, but from what he knew, they served to help one calm down. When she set the kettle on the stove, she turned to face him, two words on her lips, words he had not been expecting to hear.

"I'm sorry."

"… For what?"

"I think…" she paused, gathering her thoughts, "I think I accidentally pulled you into my nightmare."

"Oh, it's not—"

"And I think that I realized it in-dream, which is why the rabbits appeared," she added, cutting him off. He was fine with that, but… she was rambling, which was a very… non-Raven trait. "I was trying to force the dream to change into something positive and all I could think of was Starfire and how earlier we had been discussing rabbits and Slade ended up in that hideous—"

"Raven!"

The girl in question stopped abruptly at his call and it looked almost as if he'd brought her back to reality. She looked at him, her face revealing her confusion, her concern, her regret.

"It's alright," Robin said. "When people go through… things like that, it stays with them. And you know that if you ever need me," he reached a hand across the countertop to touch hers, "when I'm awake, asleep, in a different country—whatever—I will always be there for you."

Her eyes moved to their touching hands and he felt a bit insecure for a moment. This was too sentimental for her, wasn't it? He didn't need to touch her to have her understand that he cared. She was an empath, so what was he doing? Robin slowly moved his hand away, only to feel her snatch three of his fingers in hers. He cocked his head to the side, a bit surprised.

"Thank you," was all she said.

The screech of the kettle brought them back to where they were: the kitchen of Titans Tower. She turned back around to fix her tea and the two were surrounded in a silence once more, though this time it was rather calming, much akin to the serene silences they usually shared. If Robin was honest with himself, these silences were probably the best part of any of his days. After all the excitement of fighting crime, laughing with the others at the Team's silly antics, sitting in a calming silence with Raven was his favorite part of any day.

It was the one part of his day where he wasn't forced to do anything for anyone, to care about anyone, to think about anything really. Raven was the only person he knew who was content with silence. Well, except maybe Batman, but those days were long behind him.

"Would you like to watch the sunrise?" This question brought Robin out of his thoughts and he raised his eyebrows. Was it already that close to daytime? Before he could answer her, however, she continued, "You said before that you enjoyed watching the sunrise."

He smiled. Of course Raven would remember such a silly detail like that.

"Sure."

They moved to the couch, sitting close enough that Robin could feel her body heat, but far enough away that there was a bit of space in between them. A bright crack on the horizon told Robin that the show was about to begin. The dawn of a new day and enough hope to fill his entire being just beyond his fingertips. And then, a myriad of colors flooded his vision—dark purples changed to magentas that changed to deep reds, which flooded into a scope of oranges and yellows on a wide background of dark blue, then blue as light as his mood, all surrounding the sun as it rose higher and higher into the sky. And somewhere throughout all of this, his hand had met hers.

This time he didn't think of moving away.

Instead he was bold and intertwined his fingers with hers, finding no protests from her end as she sipped her tea.

What a beautiful morning to counter such an awful nightmare.