I seriously debated on when to post this fic, but I couldn't wait to write a Malchior/Raven one. I still plan to update my other one, so don't worry . Well, happy readying!

And of course, I don't own the Teen Titans.

The Ties that Bind Us

Prologue: Blood-Stained Snow

The feeble rays of the morning sun had shone through the holes in the curtains that draped over each side of the window of the small room. They stretched across the worn floorboards and then seeped its way over to a small form huddled in a tangle of thin blankets.

A pair of round, dark amethyst eyes opened slowly from a pale face. Trickles of violet hair brushed past her small shoulders as she sat up from her bed. Rubbing her eyes, she yawned a bit as the sun continued to dawn over the little cottage.

However, although she has lived here for eight years, it never felt like a home to her.

She swung her little feet over the bedside and planted them on the floor. Her hands tugged the blankets over the aged mattress and she smoothed out the wrinkles before changing into an old dress and a shawl and leaving the room.

When she had reached the living room that had also served as a small kitchen, she found her mother sitting at the small table. A bowl of hot porridge was placed before an empty chair, and the child sat before it and silently ate. At mealtimes, conversations were nonexistent for her mother did not seem to make an effort to talk to her.

The girl was used to it though; it was not like she was ever in the mood to talk to her mother anyway.

The woman's eyes stared at the child as she ate from the curls of dark hair that went past her shoulders. The girl had noticed, but she ignored it. Whether it be her own mother or the people who lived in the nearby village, she was used to being gawked at.

Her eyes had lost the spark of youth that she had possessed in her earlier years. They seemed to settle on the middle of her forehead, and the child knew what she was looking at.

On rare occasions such as this morning, her mother would take note of the crimson diamond-shaped stone that was embedded on her forehead. Her barren eyes would then seem to glisten, and she would get that same look of despair that she would always have when she looked at her daughter. Being a child, the girl could not comprehend why her mother looked so agonized whenever she saw that gem. It was like she was on the verge of tears, but she had none left to shed. What could be so upsetting about the jewel that it would make her mother so miserable?

Since her mother never talked about it, and she herself did not have a problem with the fact that she was born with a jewel on her forehead, she left the table after she was finished eating to venture out into the forests outside of the cottage. As soon as she shut the door, her mother buried her face into her hands and began sobbing.

The brisk winter air embraced her upon leaving the warmth of the cottage. The forest floor was blanketed in a thick sheet of shimmering snow, and the frost-laden branches blended into the background of the white-gray sky.

She took a deep breath, and then began walking. The wind whistled through the violet strands of her hair, and her shoes crunched softly upon the snow with each step that she took. It was without a doubt cold, but she did not care. She was walking away to her special place, a place that her mother did not know about. There, she would sit by herself and was not bothered. She was not stared at or talked about: she was simply alone. No strained whispers, no crying mother, just her and the silence of the sleeping forest, and that was all she wanted.

All of a sudden, a feeling of dread overpowered her. The girl instantly halted in her steps, the strange sensation weighing her down. She had noticed that it had gotten considerably colder, frigid even. An unusual scent permeated the air, something that she was not familiar with.

She somehow felt that the origin of all this was coming from the clearing that she would spend her time alone at.

Driven by curiosity, she walked further into the forest. The feeling of dread only strengthened as she drew closer to the clearing, and the strange scent was almost dizzying. Still, she walked on, her heart drumming in her chest wildly.

With each step, the dread quickly altered into something worse. She could not see it just yet, but it felt as if someone was in pain. Someone was suffering, she was certain of it. She could feel it.

Finally, she stepped into the clearing. Trees surrounded a small pond whose frozen surface had shared the same semblance with that of a mirror. The wind whispered through the naked trees, and occasionally a patch of snow would slip off a branch and fall onto the waiting ground below.

Everything was so white. Everything matched; everything was unblemished and flawless like a winter wonderland should be.

That was until her eyes fell upon a figure lying in a pool of blood on the other side of the pond.

She ran around the pond and to the fallen body. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the lean figure was that of a boy. Long, silver-white hair had fallen to the small of his back and, like the snow around him, the strands were stained with blood.

Drops of scarlet tainted the pure white of the snow on the ground, and she recognized it as the scent from earlier. His clothes were tattered, and they too were stained with blood. She saw his hands were clutching his stomach, and his breathing was short and uneven.

Without wasting time, she carefully turned the boy over onto his back. The wound was deep, and he was losing more blood with each passing second. Her fingers fumbled as they tore at the shawl around her shoulders. She wrapped the cloth around him and tied it as securely as she could. The boy mumbled something, but she could tell that he was struggling to keep conscious.

What was she going to do? She couldn't go back to the cottage and get her mother to help. It was too far, and the blood was quickly seeping through the shawl without any signs of stopping.

In her uncertainty, she lightly pressed her hands against the shawl that had covered the wound, hoping that it would help slow the bleeding. His eyes were flickering open, and she caught a glimpse of the crystal blue pools that settled underneath the pair of long lashes. His breathing was getting shorter now, but he didn't need to speak to tell her that he was in pain. He was staring straight at her, and little by little the look in his eyes was becoming more distant.

Even if she didn't know him, she didn't want to see him like this. She didn't want to see anyone like this. She wanted to help him, she didn't want to see him suffer anymore...

A tingling sensation took over her fingers, and she saw that her hands were engulfed in blue light. A surprised gasp escaped her lips and she stared at her hands as if she were seeing them for the first time.

However, something wondrous was happening before her eyes.

The flow of blood that leaked through the shawl was slowing down. It was like the wound was gradually healing itself as her hands were placed over it. The boy's breathing became more even, and she was relieved when his eyes had opened again.

A jolt of pain struck her, replacing the relief that she had felt. A cry escaped her lips from the sensation; it had felt like the cold steel of a knife had been buried into her. Her hands left the boy's wound and clutched her stomach, and when she looked down she saw that her own blood was beginning to drip down her fingers.

She had never felt such an excruciating pain. She could barely hear herself crying out, and the snow-covered forest was becoming a white haze to her now. She could make out the boy before her, and he realized that his blue eyes were wide open in fright. His lips were moving, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. Soon, unconsciousness took over her and the white haze and the blue-eyed boy had disappeared.

The frigid touch of the night air had stirred her from sleep. Her eyes slowly opened, and the crackle of a warm fire greeted her. She was back in the clearing, surrounded by the bare, swaying trees.

She remembered what had happened, and she sat up from the ground. Her hands involuntarily went to her stomach, and she found that her shawl was wrapped around her.

"Are you okay?"

She turned around to see him standing there with a pile of twigs and branches in his hands. He was very thin and he was a bit taller than her. He looked like he was around her age, but there was something about him aside from the shock of white hair and the startling blue eyes that made him seem more than a simple child.

"Yes," she replied feebly, her eyes traveling to where he was bleeding before.

He laughed a bit, the warmth of his voice breaking the frosty silence. "Don't worry," he reassured her as he fed the fire the wood that he salvaged. "I feel a lot better now, thanks to you."

She could feel her cheeks getting warm, and she averted his eyes from him. "I didn't do anything..."

"Yes you did," he said. "You stopped the bleeding."

Even if that were true, she didn't know how she did it. One minute, she was helpless to save this strange boy, and the next her hands were glowing with blue light that didn't burn her at all, and now he was claiming that she had saved him.

"I'm sorry about your shawl," he said, and her eyes then fell to the cloth that was wrapped around her. She untied the knot and it unraveled. The light from the fire made the scarlet stains more vivid on the dark cloth.

"When I get some money, I'll buy you a new one."

Taken by surprise, her eyes widened at the white-haired boy. No one had ever offered her to buy anything for her, especially not other children. Didn't this boy understand? He wasn't supposed to say that to her, he wasn't even supposed to be talking to her!

She was different, strange, and unusual. She wasn't like other children, and because of that they stayed away from her. She wasn't a normal little girl, and that justified her mother's decision to hide her away in a rickety old cottage. It justified her not having any friends, not having a loving mother, and most importantly, it justified the fact that she could never be happy.

"Hey, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

Before she even realized it, warm tears were trickling from the corners of her eyes and down her cheeks. Frustrated with the boy and the wretched life she was forced to live, she got up from the snow and bolted towards the darkness of the forest. The boy was calling to her, but she ignored him. All she wanted to do was be alone today, and he had ruined it for her.

The shadows welcomed her and the darkness was comforting as she ran. She didn't know where her feet were taking her, she just wanted to get away from it all. Away from the staring eyes, away from her mother, and away from that boy...

Something gripped her wrist and pulled her back, preventing her from moving.

"Let me go!" she screamed, trying to break free of whatever was holding her. "I want to be alone!"

Her eyes flashed white and her hands blazed black once more. Dark flames erupted from her hand, and she heard a cry of pain and something falling soundly onto the snow. Her hand was free again, but she didn't continue running. She was too shocked to do so.

Slumping against the tree was the blue-eyed boy. He was rubbing the back of his hair and wincing in pain as he stood up from the snow.

"Why did you run away?" he asked her. She was shocked that he wasn't running away from her.

"...aren't you afraid of me?" she questioned him, the tears still running down her pale cheeks.

He gave her a puzzled look and shook his head. "Why would I be afraid of you?"

She turned her back to him, feeling uneasy about the way he was behaving. Normally, any other child would be sprinting away from her. They would be screaming, telling her to stay away from them. She was abnormal. She was frightening.

...and yet this boy wasn't running away from her, even after she had unintentionally attacked him.

"...because...I'm not normal."

"So? I'm not either."

That was certainly unexpected. Intrigued, she had stopped crying and turned around. There was small smile on his tired face, and before she could even ask, he had murmured something under his breath. In an instant, his hand was engulfed in bolts of white energy. He held out his palm, and a sphere of dazzling light formed above it. Her eyes were fixated on it, and as soon as he had conjured it, it had disappeared.

She stared at him, and she found that there was still a kind smile on his face.

"I'm Rorek. What's your name?"

Her heart skipped a beat. No one has ever asked her that before. No one even wanted to know. But the gentle smile on his face soothed any fears that she had.

"...Raven."

It had been a week since Rorek had made camp in the clearing. She had been visiting him everyday, bringing food and bandages with her. While she was tending to his injuries, she would talk to him all day, and it would not be until night that she would go home.

And every time that she had to leave, for some reason, he would look disappointed. Sad, even.

Raven brushed her shoulder-length hair and left her room. She still had to pack a meal for Rorek and her. She was about to step into the living room, but she suddenly heard her mother's voice.

"I don't know what to do. She must hate me, I can't..."

She stopped midway in her sentence, a choking sob erupting from her throat.

"No child can ever hate their parent," an unfamiliar voice comforted her mother. It sounded feminine and enigmatic, almost unearthly.

"But she never says anything to me," her mother replied shakily. "She never talks or laugh, she never smiles...and it's all my fault..."

The sobs became heavier, and Raven peeked around the corner to see what was happening. Her mother was crying into her hands, and a woman in robes of dark blue was placing a comforting hand onto her shoulder.

"It haunts me even when I'm awake. Every time I look at her, I remember him. I remember everything that I had done, how much of a damned fool I was...!"

"What has been done cannot be changed," the woman solemnly stated. "But your child can still be saved. She does not have to become what you fear most."

The wretched floorboards beneath her creaked slightly from her shifting weight. The woman and her mother looked in her direction and found her eavesdropping on them. However, the girl kept a blank expression and headed towards the kitchen. She got out a basket and placed a couple of apples and a few stems of grapes into it. She also put in a few loaves of bread into the basket. When she couldn't find the jar of strawberry jam that she was certain that they had, she deducted that it was in the cupboard. Standing on the tips of her toes, she managed to open the cupboard door, but the jam was on the higher shelf.

A hand reached for the jar and brought it down for her. Raven's eyes darted over to the robed woman, who was smiling down at her.

"My, what an adorable little girl," she gently spoke. "What is your name?"

She just stared at the woman in silence, but her mother answered for her.

"Her name is Raven."

"Raven," the woman repeated, the smile still fixed on her face. "Such a fitting name for a lovely child."

Raven didn't understand why the woman was being so kind to her and she didn't know why she was here in the first place, but she decided to think about it later. Rorek was probably waiting for her, and she didn't want to be late.

Without saying a word, she took the jam from the woman's hand and put in the basket. She headed towards the door and opened it.

"Are you going to stay out all day again?" her mother asked.

"Yes," was the simple reply, and she closed the door behind her.

"Raven?"

She turned her head towards the blue-eyed boy, who was sitting beside her. "Yeah?"

"What's wrong? You've been really quiet."

Another day had passed, and night had fallen. The stars shone in unison from the velvet blue sky, and the moon illuminated the snow that draped the entire forest.

"It's nothing," she quickly replied, staring at their reflections on the frozen pond's surface.

"It doesn't seem that way," he replied. "What's wrong?"

It was obvious that continuing to lie to him wasn't going to make things better. "It's just that...a woman came to my house today, and my mother and her were talking about me."

Raven sighed heavily. "My mother said that every time she would look at me, I reminded her of someone. She said that I also reminded her of something that she did a long time ago, something that she regrets."

She hugged her knees tightly, and stared at they sky. "I guess it makes sense, though. When she sees me, she looks hurt...and it's like I'm the one who hurt her."

Her fingers touched the red gem on her forehead, and even though Rorek was next to her, she was feeling miserable.

"Maybe if I looked like a normal child, she would be happy."

"...I used to think that, too."

She looked at him, but his eyes never met hers. Instead, he stared at his reflection that was on the pond's surface. There was a look of contempt in his features, and his reflection had mirrored it as well.

"I didn't always look like this," he started, pulling at a strand of white hair. "I used to look normal, but even then, I didn't feel normal."

He looked back at her, smiling sadly. "A lot of people stayed away from me before I looked like this. I guess even if I did look normal, it wouldn't really matter..."

Rorek trailed off, leaving Raven more perplexed. Although she had found comfort in his words, there seemed to be something that he wasn't telling her. In fact, he never explained to her how he got those terrible wounds a week ago. She didn't ask him, fearing that she would bring up something that he didn't want to talk about.

Although he was a child like her, there was much more to him than he was letting on.

"Raven?"

His voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Yes?"

He was unusually quiet, and he had once again failed to meet her eyes. "If you knew something about me, if you knew that I did something really terrible...would you still be my friend?"

She stared at him in silence, and now he was looking directly at her. His eyes looked both hopeful and anxious as he waited for her answer.

Even though there was still a lot about Rorek that she didn't know about, she couldn't say no. He was the first person who ever talked to her, the first person who didn't run away or treat her like she was inhuman.

Rorek made her feel accepted and understood. He made her feel happier than she had ever been in her life.

"Of course I would."

The joy was apparent in his eyes, but he still held back. "No matter how terrible?"

She smiled warmly, and answered, "You're the first one who wasn't afraid of me. You'll always be my friend."

A boyish grin spread across his face, and she knew that he had believed her. She then turned to the sky and was mesmerized by the shimmering sea of stars above.

"You really like stars, don't you?"

She nodded. "Yes. I always look at them. I think they're very pretty."

"...I'll get one for you."

Her eyes tore away from the sky and settled upon him.

"I'll get the brightest one and put it on a chain for you so you can wear it. And whenever you look at it, you can think of me."

He was smiling at her, and she knew that she was blushing. "Why?"

The smile disappeared from his face, and he looked away from her. "Because...I really like you, Raven."

His pale cheeks were now red, his long bangs covering his eyes. He fell unusually silent once more, waiting for her to respond. A part of him was afraid that she would reject him, and once again he would be alone. The sound of his heart pounding thundered in his ears as he waited for an answer.

A small hand placed itself on his, and he looked up to meet her amethyst eyes.

"...I like you, too."

She was blushing, but the smile on her face filled him with a happiness that he hadn't felt in a long time. They both were silent then, and they gazed at the stars together.

Raven shut the door behind her with the basket dangling from her arm. She turned around and was about to leave for the clearing.

However, a small crowd of hooded figures stood in her way.

"Child, you must come with us."

One of them extended a hand out to her, but she refused to take it. "Who are you?" she asked, taking a step back.

None of them answered. Instead, the leader drew closer to her with his outstretched hand.

"Never mind that. You must come with us," he repeated, his tone more assertive.

The door opened, and her mother had stepped out. She saw the frightened look on her daughter's face, and then she had seen the hooded figures that were standing outside of her home.

"Oh, God..." Raven heard her mother murmur. Before she knew it, the woman stood in front of her, keeping her out of the strangers' view.

"Move aside woman," the leader hissed.

Her mother did no such thing, and instead she took her daughter and shoved her inside the house. Before Raven could even question her, her mother was busy bolting the door.

"What's happening?" Raven asked, her voice trembling.

After she was finished, she took her daughter by the hand and into the back of the house. Kneeling to her height, she placed her hands on her shoulders.

"Raven, you have to run away from here."

"Why?"

She was silent, the tears welling up in her eyes again. She brought the girl close to her in a tight hug, making Raven all the more confused and fearful.

"Take care of yourself."

She pulled away from her daughter with a sorrowful smile on her ruby lips. Raven gawked at her, feeling more frightened than she had ever been. Why was her mother saying this? It was like she was saying good-bye, and that made her feel scared...

An explosion was heard, and splinters of wood flew in all directions. Without warning, a beam of blood red light shot through her mother's chest and she fell soundly on the ground. Blood pooled out of the wound, and her eyes were wide open but unmoving. Her dark curls were strewn around her face which wore an expression of shock.

Raven knelt down to her mother's unmoving body. Her little hands gathered up her mother's tightly, hoping that she would get up.

"...mother?" she feebly said, but she received no answer. The blood just kept pooling onto the floorboards, and her mother didn't move.

Raven sat motionless next to her mother. Shadows loomed over her, and the hooded figures had closed in on the young girl.

"Girl, you will come with us."

She gritted her teeth, the rage boiling in her blood. "You did this...you did this to her!"

Her eyes glowed crimson and her hair flew wildly about her face. The walls of the small cottage shook and tremors went through the ground.

The murderers were now at the mercy of a little girl.

The cottage laid in ruin when she had arrived. As she walked past the rubble and broken wood, she had found bodies amongst the debris. Tattered robes had revealed wounds that ran deeply through nearly incinerated flesh. She shuddered, but continued her search.

Sure enough, there was a small girl with violet hair kneeling next to the unmoving form of a woman. She didn't even acknowledge her when she was at her side. She just kept holding onto the woman's hand, looking at the corpse with void eyes.

"...Raven?"

The girl did not respond. The woman lowered herself to her height and tried again.

"Raven, are you hurt?"

Again, no response. She just kept looking at her mother's body as if she expected her to come back to life.

The woman pitied the child immensely, but she knew she wasn't safe here. She had to get her out of here before anyone else tried to kidnap her.

"She loved you very much."

Her words roused a reaction from the child. She was looking at her now, her hand still wrapped around that of her mother's.

"She was ready to die for you," she told her. "Although she may have despised herself, she loved you more than anything."

She wrapped her arms around the smaller girl, and to her surprise, the child had hugged her back. Her robe muffled her sobs, and she allowed the tears to fall on her shoulder.

"It was my fault," she said through her choked sobs. "She was trying to stop them..."

"Hush," she comforted the girl. "It was not your fault, little one."

"But why? Why did they kill her?"

She ran her hand through the tangled strands of her hair. She couldn't tell the girl now; she was much too young to know the truth. "Forgive me child, I cannot tell you. One day I will, but not now."

The girl did not lash out at her in anger or frustration. Instead, her sobs began to die down and the tears had stopped flowing onto her robe.

She stood above her, and with an outstretched hand and a comforting smile, she said, "Come. We must go."

She did not take her hand right away. The girl looked back at her mother's corpse and the ruins of her home.

"She died to keep you safe, Raven. We cannot let her sacrifice be in vain."

The child took another moment to examine what was left of the cottage she had shared with her mother, and then she held onto the older woman's hand. In an instant, the remains of her broken childhood had vanished in a flare of black magic.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Yes, although it says prologue, it was pretty long. Sorry 'bout that, but I didn't feel right making this an official chapter. Also, you're all probably confused why Rorek is in this chapter when this is actually a Malchior/Raven story, but don't worry. All will be explained soon enough. I know this story might be a little weird and off from the usual TT fic, but I wanted to do something different. Hope that you guys enjoyed it, please feel free to review and tell me what you think