A/N: This story is the second in the Toes Trilogy. Feel free to read the first (entitled "Toes Trilogy I: Missing: Raven), this one's not going anywhere.
Dove may seem like an unlikely character to exist, but read her character bio – it explains everything.

Read and review,

Raven's secret-keeper

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dove's Dark Discovery

Prologue

Dove sat down next to Raven in the living room to meditate and sighed. Raven had just gotten back from her long journey, and Dove was feeling amazingly contented. The others in the Tower were too, since Raven had been gone for more than two weeks and just revealed her return to them around an hour ago, but it was nothing compared to Dove's relief. She and Raven had an extremely unique bond – both of them having the same demon father and intricate soul, they had formed a form of sixth-sense empathy for each other, and Dove's soul had felt extremely empty and barren while Raven was gone. Now everything seemed right again.

Dove opened her violet eyes and looked at the comfortingly familiar reflection of her and Raven in the wall-sized window. No longer was it just her, helplessly trying to control her powers and calm down. She couldn't help thinking about how her own white outfit seemed to clash with Raven's dark black and blue, and she began wondering why they seemed so alike yet so different. Both were half-demon and a little dark, it was true, but she began thinking about their differences – Raven was so much more experienced with the whole "control your emotions" thing, and she barely had any idea how to keep her mind cleared to –

Suddenly Dove remembered that she needed to stay centered and keep her mind clear. She shook her head gently, throwing some of her purple-blonde iridescent hair over her face.

"Focus," Raven reminded her quietly without opening her eyes.

Dove nodded and pushed back her bangs. "Right… Sorry."

Dove took a soft breath and cleared her mind before she started chanting the words. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

As she repeated them a couple more times, her voice became increasingly monotonous and her mind eased into the relaxing emptiness of meditation. She couldn't help letting one last thought slip in -

"Raven, thank Azar you're home," she said softly and glanced Raven's way.

Raven opened one of her eyes and nodded before resuming her chants, and Dove smiled a bit before joining in, keeping perfect time with Raven's voice and letting the peaceful lack of sensations calm her and take away any of the stress and anxieties she had been feeling, tranquilizing her and soothing any possibilities of discontentment.

At least, so it seemed.

Chapter 1: Vision

Dove was meditating in her mind, the "reflection" world – hence the fact that the portal there is a mirror – created by her own thoughts and feelings, the most centered and calm place imaginable. All was peaceful; at least, as peaceful as it could be for a daughter of Trigon.

Until she felt it.

A cold wind – much colder than usual – tugged at her cape. She shivered and stopped her monotone chants, then pulled her cloak around herself and repositioned her hands on the folds, hoping it would stay. She refocused her mind and began chanting once more. The wind blew again more forcefully, and she reached behind her head and pulled up her hood with a sigh against it.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos. Azarath Metrion Zinthos. Azarath Metrion – ah!" She felt the wind push her hood back and pull her cloak out again. Goosebumps sprang up all down her legs and she stepped to the ground. She pulled her cloak tightly around her body and put her hood up again.

The wind was making her uneasy. It didn't feel right, something here was wrong. She looked up into the indigo sky and blinked at the white stars as she walked along the rocky path. Just as she was about to pass under an arc-like structure with protrusions and engravings that made it look like wings, she began feeling disoriented. She tried transporting herself to the reasonable part of her soul so she could try and reason it out, but confusion clouded her thought and it quickly became impossible.

Suddenly everything began blurring together. The stars melted into the sky, the arcs faded into the background, the tall, vertical structures disappeared. All that remained was the rocky path and the infinite sky, which was now phasing to sections of many different colors, each part fading into the surrounding areas.

Dove panicked, knowing something was incredibly wrong, and ran forward. The sky became more and more red and she ran until there was nothing but endless crimson. She turned around and saw the red spreading over all the other colors like spilled paint. Terror cursed through her and she was breaking out in a cold and nervous sweat. She took a step backwards and looked over her shoulder. She gasped and jumped around with wide eyes. There were four red eyes in the sky. Dove gulped, and a deep, horrible laughter boomed across the space.

Raven was aroused from her reading by sensing something extremely strange going on inside Dove's soul. She closed her book and set it on the couch before going to Dove's room. She looked for Dove, but her thoughts changed as she almost immediately saw the mirror on Dove's bedside table glowing a faint outline of red. She ran to the table and glanced at the glass – she saw the four eyes on its surface before they vanished. She stared at her reflection with as much determination as concern and was pulled into the vortex of red and black energies, sending her into Dove's mind. To her, everything seemed normal. The sky was indigo, the arcs were there, everything was fine.

She closed her eyes and used her empathy to locate Dove. And she found her on her palms and knees, shaking and whimpering softly.

"Dove?" She helped her up and saw how terrified her eyes were. "Dove, what happened? I could sense... Everything was tumultuous and uneven. Are you - ?"

Dove's senses suddenly snapped back to reality, and she screamed.

"Dove!"

Dove spoke speedily and shakily, her voice soft and breathless. "I – I was walking – no, there was this cold – I tried to get to – but I couldn't – then the colors and the red and the eyes and – Raven, it was a vision!"

"What –?"

"I-I was meditating, and – "

"Dove, you need to calm down. Take a few deep breaths and slow down."

Dove nodded and closed her eyes and wiped a bit of sweat from her face before doing as Raven said. "Okay… I was meditating. Everything was fine until the wind blew, and it was really colder than normal. At least... I don't know if the vision started then or after I… Well, I went to try and get to my rational side so I could think about it, but when I tried to transport myself there, I couldn't. I was getting nervous and anxious for almost no reason, and then everything was just… It looked like everything was blurry. Everything but the infinity and the path was just… gone. And the sky had patches of all kinds of colors… then I began running. I was really getting scared. And the sky was just… red." Dove stopped and noticed that Raven's expression changed. "When I looked back, the red was going over all of the other colors, and I look around again and there were his eyes in the sky… I got that feeling I – you – we get when we sense death for a really, really short moment, and there was this blinding flash and for some reason it felt... good. I don't know why – death usually makes me sick and confused and weak, or something…" She shuddered. "It was almost exhilarating. I felt energized and the excitement… I started laughing, a lot. Then I sort of gasped and collapsed, and everything seemed so numb and wrong and – it felt like I was being pulled in a million different directions at once, then the weird feelings were all replaced by fear. And then you came."

Raven blinked.

"Raven, what was it?"

"You were right, it was a vision, but... Dove, it looks like you're losing control. Are you sure - ?"

"No…! I can't – When you came home, everything fell back into place for me."

"But are you sure you were completely over it?"

"I am!" She sounded on the verge of tears.

"Dove, there's no other reason – I know it probably seems like everything fixed itself, but maybe everything that's been going on lately has been pushing your emotions too far."

Dove shook her head violently. "Everything was…" She blinked. "No, no, no…"

"Dove, I know you hate to think about it, but… Unless you want to give in, you need to be extremely careful. Make sure you meditate daily and - "

"I do!"

"And yelling like that won't help."

"I'm sorry! I just hate it when - !"

"Dove! Listen. I know how much you don't want to give in. And that's exactly why you need to calm down."

Dove looked at Raven's face. Her even calmness – or at least apparent confidence and determination – was a little soothing, and the fact that her eyes had a steady expression made her feel more at ease. She sighed. "Okay…" She expelled a breath. "Do you really think that's why..? I'm losing control…?"

Raven nodded. "But we can stop it if we're careful."

Dove nodded. "Okay…"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Raven began staying with her at all times, giving her a warning glance or telling her to calm down whenever she became even a bit upset or seemed to be even a bit emotional. She told her to see if she could avoid the others, it would probably help – the other Titans having the liberty of emotions and lacking the need for control over them, Dove's empathy and sensing their emotions might lead to her powers breaking out of control. She began training Dove more cautiously and yet more vigorously. She was very careful in what she told Dove to do, and she kept a much more watchful eye when Dove was practicing, which she did a lot more. If her powers were under control, it could only be a good thing if Dove did start giving in. Raven also told her to meditate for a little longer than normal, just to be safe and to help her stay more centered.

Nothing seemed wrong with Dove since the vision, but Raven was still extremely cautious.

It seemed like they had it under control. The problem being that they were wrong.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Review please- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

-Raven's secret-keeper