There were only three phrases he could mutter: It was so dark in there and Make it stop and Please—go.

It would have been quite funny if not for the horrifying reality that it was. Even a week after he had been dragged underneath Raven's cloak, he still had freakish nightmares, and his body shook, sometimes breaking out in a cold sweat.

There was progress, though.

Slowly, between the sunrises and sunsets, he was getting better, losing that pained feeling, or memory, or whatever it was that kept nagging at him. The nights were different though; Dr. Light slept with all the lights on.

So dark… he usually said, It was so dark in there…

But enough time had passed. He was ready for his interview. What had happened to him; what he saw, what he felt, what he heard, what he sensed. Perhaps what he even tasted. All senses had to be accounted for.

So now, the still shaken but still pessimistically angry Dr. Light sat in one of the seldom used interview rooms. It wasn't truly an interview room, but merely a spare one within the maze of the original ship the building had been made from. It had the clearest view of the outside world, which meant plenty of natural daylight.

Robin had said it would not be that effective; they should put him in a darker interview room—they wanted him to remember, after all.

No, no, Cyborg had said back. You put him in a dark room and all you'll get is that shaking mantra-repeating dude. I say, if you put him in a lighter room, he'll be able to speak like an actual person.

And so here he was.

Pissed off, scowling, but still nervous. Covered in a cold sweat that had never really left him. His eyes locked on the window, staring vacantly into the outside world, not seeing anything at all.

The door clicked open, and then locked. Robin walked in, a stiff, grim expression on his face.

Dr. Light wanted nothing more than to smack it off his face.

"So, Dr. Light, ready to tell us what happened?" he asked. His face never changed expressions, he looked as deadpanned as he could. Just like he had been trained.

"Hhmm," he sneered, and turned his attention back to the window.

"You know, this is one of the better interview rooms. We could put you in another…one that is darker perhaps…"

Robin saw as Dr. Light flinched, clearly agitated by that thought. The way his fingers twitched and his jaw clenched. His red bloodshot eyes locked on Robin, rage and fear mixed in them.

The look was meant to cut through him, but Robin didn't even bat an eye.

They both paused, waiting for the other to make the first move. Dr. Light only clenched up, shutting his words down and sealing up his thoughts. This was not the first time he had been interrogated, and it wasn't going to be the last either.

The Boy Wonder will have to deal with it!

"You know," Robin said, sauntering over to the nearby chair, "Raven could conduct this interview instead—"

" I ' ! "

He broke down so quickly it was almost comical. Robin tried to hide the smile that was forcing its way on his face, but it only came off as a smirk. One that made Dr. Light scowl even more.

But the thought of that demon witch near him again… He shuddered.

"I'll talk," he said again, more calmly this time.

Robin nodded, the last of his smirk or his smile fading away. Replaced by his serious expression once more.

"Can you remember anything?" was the first question Robin asked.

He waited, watching as Dr. Light ground his teeth together. Clearly contemplating saying nothing, or telling him to fuck off, or something else of that nature.

Still, he waited patiently.

"Of course I can remember," he spat at last.

"Tell us about it," Robin replied.

Dr. Light leaned back in his chair once more, casting his gaze to the sun-struck ocean view outside. He ground his jaw together again, pissed off as ever. His eyes worked up and down the pane, wheels in his head turning.

"You can't break that glass," Robin told him, seeming to read his thoughts. "It's from alien technology. Besides, you'd be foolish to try anything now."

Raven is right on the other side of this wall, along with the rest of the Titans. They are watching and listening. It's as though they are right in this very room with us. I suggest your play it safe.

"Can you tell us about what you remember?" Robin asked him, his voice even.

Dr. Light raised an eyebrow. "Us?"

"This interview is being recorded. Just like every other interview. You of all people should know that." He jabbed a finger at him. Twice more, Robin had to ask him the same question.

Finally, he coaxed the words from Dr. Light. Parting his dry, cracked lips, he said, "It was very dark in there." Then his jaw clenched back up.

Robin nodded. "You've said that already."

Pause.

"Can you tell us more than that. What about this darkness?"

From behind the glass, Raven fidgeted. She didn't like this at all, for various reasons. The fact that she caused this, or the fact that she was still to blame, even though everyone had assured her she wasn't. Perhaps it was the way that that terrible moment of hers was being recorded, or on display for the others.

She pulled her cloak hood up around her, trying to block out the emotional surge of powers that was swirling around in her. The negative energy was making her feel slightly ill.

"You okay?" Cyborg asked her, noticing her distress.

Raven nodded slowly, trying to keep her eyes from shifting to his face. She wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to see what he was thinking.

Cyborg placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to steady her, or comfort her. "You look kinda sick. You need anything?"

Raven shook her head once more.

"Not even a glass of water? No? How 'bout a place to sit?"

Raven just kept shaking her head no. She was fine, she told herself. Completely fine. She would work through this just like everything else. Focus. Calm. Peace. Meditate.

She closed her eyes and pictured Azarath once more, letting the warm memories come flooding back to her. Once contented, she opened her eyes again, and felt no negative energy.

"Tell us more!" Robin demanded, slamming his fist down on the table.

Dr. Light seemed jolted by it, and Robin took it as a good sign. He was the one leading this interview, he was the one with the upper hand, and it wasn't about to end soon.

He would drag this interview out until the end.

"It was dark!" Dr. Light shouted at him, slamming his hands down on the table in turn. "What more do you want to know?"

"Everything! People don't just get messed up like that because it's dark! What else was there?!"

A long sigh followed afterwords.

"Hatred."

For a long time, that was the only word spoken. It hung in the air between them, begging for more to be said. But also an ill omen, as though to explore it would bring something too terrible for either of them to acknowledge.

"There were… intense…. emotions. There was much hatred."

At that, Dr. Light crossed his arms, and demanded if that was enough. Not even close, Robin told him, not even close.

He slammed his hands onto the table again, but Robin just ignored that.

"Emotionssss. More than one. Tell me more."

He clenched his jaw.

"Tell me more."

He shifted his eyes away, eyeing the window pane once more. If only he could break it, and he knew he could. Somehow.

"Perhaps I'll call Raven in now…"

"No, no!" The words fell from his lips before he could stop them. "I'll tell you more, just don't let…let her…near me."

Robin nodded. Go on, he seemed to say.

"There were a lot of things. They were…so so dark. They…well, I told you, hatred was a strong emotion there. But there were other things; things like, like…" he struggled for the words, "I don't know. Just darkness."

He paused again, and rubbed his head, as if fighting off a headache.

"Don't call her in here. I'll find the words…"

Robin shifted his sight from Dr. Light to the two-way mirror. He couldn't see them all, but he knew they were all there. All watching. He gave them no sign, no signal, only a stare that let them know this was going well.

For him.

Raven was almost a mess. Cyborg's had was back on her shoulder, as if trying to hold onto the calm, collected form of Raven that he knew.

"Evil. There was evilness in her…"

Raven nearly fled from the room, but rooted herself to the spot out of sheer willpower. Black flames of her bottled up emotions sparked to life around her, burning intensely, just as his words burned into her mind.

"I'll get you that glass of water, Raven," Cyborg told her.

Starfire took his place right after the door closed; she clasped her arm around Raven, giving her a slight squeeze to remind her where she was. Raven fidgeted under her touch; she didn't like having this many people noticing her.

Still, she only grit her teeth together as the rest of the interview continued.

"So you're saying Raven is evil?" Robin asked, both amused and annoyed at the thought of it.

Dr. Light shook his head frantically.

"Yes. Yes," he said to Robin. "Evil. Evil, evil witch-y bitch—"

"Enough!" Robin shouted, cutting him off before he could say much more. He shifted his eyes back to the mirror in the room, wondering what Raven thought of all this. He knew she was watching, but didn't know how she was responding.

"Okay," he sighed, "evil. You said you felt evil. That's pretty vague…"

Dr. Light shrugged his shoulders, as if saying, So what? It's not like I care about this interview. You're lucky I'm talking at all.

Cyborg came back into the other room, two things of bottled water in his hand.

"Here you go," he said to Raven, holding one of the bottles out to her. She took it gladly, swigging down the cool water as if she breathed it. It helped to cool her nerves, so she just kept drinking all the while.

He disappeared from the room, the other water bottle still in his hand. Within another minute, he appeared inside the interview room, setting the water bottle, unopened, down onto the table.

"Robin," he said, "can I get ya out here for a minute?"

Robin nodded, and left with Cyborg, leaving Dr. Light alone in the room. "You sure that's a good idea?" Beast Boy asked aloud. Starfire only shrugged. Just then, the door opened, and in walked Cyborg and Robin.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Beast Boy asked again, pointing to Dr. Light sitting alone in the room.

"Trust me, it'll work out fine," Robin told him.

Inside the room, completely alone, the Titans watched as Dr. Light fidgeted all around. He knew he was being watched, somehow; that much was given. Still, he fidgeted all he liked.

Rising from his seat, he went to the large window pane, tapping at it with his fingers. A deep, low clink hardly resonated through the pane at all. It was plenty thick, that much Dr. Light could gouge. Putting a bare hand to the window, he felt the surface of the material. It was similar to glass, but not quite.

He pondered over this, staring at the pane the whole time. He rapped his knuckles against the pane again before spinning around from it.

He started pacing after that.

"Dudes, this is so boring," Beast Boy complained. He groaned, and ran a hand over his face. "I mean, what's the point of this?"

"Please," Starfire said to him, "I am sure there is some point to this." She turned to look at Robin. "Yes?"

"Just wait," Robin said, still staring dead ahead. His eyes were locked on Dr. Light the whole time, his eyes following his every movement from behind the mask.

Finally, Robin got what he was waiting for.

Dr. Light's attention flickered to the bottle, unopened, sitting on the interview table. His eyes kept flickering back to the bottle again and again and again, and he licked his lips again.

With an agitated sigh, he tore the water bottle open and drank deeply from it.

"Perfect!" Robin said, and headed back into the interview room.

Dr. Light had just finished drinking the very last of that addictive water when Robin walked in again. Dr. Light nearly snarled at the sight of him, but Robin didn't care in the least bit. Plopping down in the seat across from him, he said,

"So, doctor, ready to pick up where we left off?"

"No."

Robin's only response was a Hmm and a slight smile that crept across his face. Folding his arms, he leaned back into his chair, watching and waiting patiently for something none of them knew. Save for Robin himself.

And Cyborg behind the mirror.

After a long pause, Robin said, "Then let's begin again." He checked the light on the recorder, glanced at the mirror one last time, and started.

"You had said that when you were in…the cloak…that you felt a vague sense of evil. Expand on that," Robin demanded. He glared at Dr. Light, watching as Robin saw him try to resist at first. But the words came from him at last:

"It was a vague feeling, one that pressured you and consumed you in the dark. The dark heightens your senses, and so you can feel everything more. And it was so dark in there…so dark…"

Dr. Light strained, cutting off his words right there.

A wild look came into his eyes, one of anger and confusion. Setting his bloodshot eyes on Robin, he snarled, "You gave me truth serum, didn't you, bird brat?"

The rest of the Titans exchanged looks behind the glass. Cyborg had all eyes settled on him, to which he shrugged it off. Don't worry, guys… Perfectly safe… perfectly moral…

"Can you tell me more?" Robin asked.

Dr. Light inhaled deeply, then exhaled with a groan. Small blue veins had appeared around his forehead, and in his wrists. Taking another breath, trying to soothe himself, he complied.

"I…I felt the truest sense of darkness…"

He knew how stupid he must have sounded, but it was true. It was true in all ways that he could tell the story, every possible angle he could see it. Darkness, overwhelming darkness that consumed all senses, dominated them.

"…and if felt like this evil darkness—thing—whatever it was—it had gotten ahold of me. Gotten ahold of me, like it had ripped me open and was now just—just—" he searching for the words, "like it was just scanning me or something."

"Scanning you?" Robin asked, somehow unable to wrap his head around that idea. Without awareness, Robin's eyes flicked back to the mirror. For a split second he caught a glimpse of his puzzled face, but it didn't register in his head.

"Something like that," Dr. Light spat at him.

Unable to sit still anymore, he jumped from the table and screamed, "I'll have you know this is a violation of my human rights! I have the right to silence!"

"We know," Robin said, not leaving his seat. "And for the record, you agreed to this."

"I did no such thing!" he yelled.

Robin only sighed, and laced his fingers together. "You did…earlier…you don't remember. Please…sit down."

Dr. Light only yelled more profanities, pacing around the room angrily, stomping his boots into the floor as hard as he could. Ranting and raving all the while, while Robin sat at the desk, listening uninterested at the table.

This and that and this, he made notes in his mind.

"Should we not help to control the Dr. Light?" Starfire asked, watching as he stomped around the room, shouting words that made her wince. With each shrill remark, her grip on Raven tightened.

"Nah, Robin's got it covered," Cyborg said easily.

They all turned to look at him.

"He's just waiting for Dr. Light to finish his tantrum, and then he'll continue the interview on as is. No problem. Besides, with every angry word that doctor calls him, he's probably giving Robin slight bits of information," Cyborg explained.

"How is this possible?" Starfire asked him.

"Yah!" Beast Boy chimed in suddenly. "How is Dr. Light calling Robin a bird-brained-son-of-a-bitch helping to solve anything?"

"Trained ears, I suppose," said Cyborg. "Patience. I don't really know everything either. I'm assuming Robin is just letting him get all that out of his system."

"But we should not assist?" Starfire asked.

"No," Raven blurted out, surprising them all.

Raven stared straight ahead, her concentration pinpointed in on every word and every movement that went on within the interview room. Her eyes focused and unfocused at random, but sharpened once more as she watched Dr. Light finished his outrage. She followed his movements back to the table, where he slumped in the chair, drained—for some odd reason.

Her eyes darted to Robin, trying to read his emotions. He seemed like a blank slate, his face not showing any trace of what he was thinking. At least not truly. Raven focused in on his face more.

"Are you finished?" Robin asked, as Dr. Light slumped down into the chair in front of him.

With an exasperated sigh, Dr. Light gave a weak nod.

"Good," Robin said, and unlaced his fingers. He set his arms down on the table casually, leaning back slightly. Not disturbed at all.

"Now, tell us more about this whole 'scanning' thing? What do you mean by that?" He paused. "Are you sure you're not just going crazy?"

"I'm not going crazy," Dr. Light said in a low voice. "I'll tell you more." He leaned up in the chair, his attention now on the recording. "I'll tell you more, for the last of it. It's not doing any good bottled up in my head anyway."

Everyone seemed to hold their breath.

They waited, waited for him to continue on.

Time stretched on, and bundles of nerves started piling onto them.

Finally, the silence broke.

"When I was in that cloak, I didn't know what to think at first. I felt an enormous surge of emotional energy…emotional power…something like that. That was the first part of it; it stripped me of all my usual senses and replaced them with something that usually lay dormant in my head.

"And then…..it felt like time stopped, and that I was in the darkness for years, and things were really strange. And so, so dark. It was all so dark and—and—bitter. Like—like ash.

"Things were like ash in my head."

He stopped then, hanging his head and sighing. The memories of Raven's cloak came rushing back to him, and he was trying to ride out those horrible, dark memories. Let them rush onto him and past him. It will come to pass, he told himself.

But it never passed.

"It wasn't human," he whispered. Knowing that no one could hear him, he forced his voice to work again. "It—it wasn't human. It just wasn't human, and that in—and of itself—was terrifying. The fact that it wasn't human, or at least not completely anyway, there was something more to it that just had a sense of devastation to it…

"It was not soulless. Not soulless. Not—not soulless, more like too much soul, and so intense emotions, it was hard and just bearing into you, and for a moment it was nothing but a raw sense of this evil, dark…thing."

It was dark in there…

So, so dark…

Yeah, yeah, we get it. It was dark in the cloak. That all you can fucking say?

That's all there is to say. It was so dark in there…

Like nothing could escape…

Nothing…

I would never escape. I would never see the light of day again. This thing was eating me alive. It felt like it, like it could do just that.

We've gone from something dark to something with teeth, real nice.

Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!

Don't you remember? Remember the darkness, the feeling of hopelessness, the overbearing sense of evil just lingering there, going on forever…

So dark…

"Dr. Light?" Robin said, breaking into the silence that had stretched on for far to long. Slowly, Dr. Light lifted up his head, observing Robin was a feverish look in his eyes.

"Please," he said, tapping towards the recorder, "we need to finish this."

"Right," he groaned. With a snicker, he asked him, "Please? Do you really feel the need to say that in a situation like this?"

When he got no response, he only laughed again.

"Just—keep—talking—"

Cutting off the last of his laughter, he sat in silence for a long time once more, making each of them fidget with impatience. Dr. Light scrolled through the past few memories in his head, knowing that he would never get them out.

You deserve it, a voice said from nowhere.

Dr. Light tensed up at the thought. It echoed in his head till he could stand it no more. He slammed his fist onto his thigh, and spoke once more.

"When I came out of the cloak, I couldn't see right for the longest time. I was seeing all in grey and shades of black and things seemed so far away, like things were stretching out and I couldn't reach them. Sounds seemed so far away—like they were underwater—my head wasn't right."

With that, he had no more to say. He had told them all he would say; everything from being pulled in, being in that darkness, and escaping. There was nothing more to say.

And from the silence that followed, there was nothing more to ask.

Raven closed her eyes, and hung her head. Relief flooded through her now that the interview was over, and that she hadn't been cast away by some secret he might have discovered. She breathed deep, savoring the feeling of the cold air in her lungs.

Starfire's hand was still on her, giving her shoulder the occasional supportive squeeze. With the interview now done, she gripped at Raven's shoulder once more.

It made her feel a little better.

More like a lot better. Her touch is so soothing.

"Raven," a cautious voice said her name. Raven had been drifting, lost within the relief of her own thoughts, sorting through all of them once more and then storing them away once more.

"Raven?"

She opened her eyes again, her vision flooded with the gray of the room. Shifting her eyes to the side, she saw Cyborg standing over her, looking down at her.

He had been the one calling her name.

But the way he looked at her…

No, wait.

They all looked at her, watching her to see how she was reacting to all this. All of their eyes locked on her; she shifted uneasily.

She dropped her gaze to the floor once more, trying to block out the feeling of all their eyes on her. Normally, she didn't care. She was used to people looking at her, staring at her, but this was different.

Her friends.

They were her friends and they were listening to the ramblings of one of her darkest moments, relayed all by someone rendered unstable. Because of her.

"Raven?"

She didn't open her eyes this time, only kept them closed and wrapped the darkness of her eyelids around her. Soon, she would feel better again. She would feel balanced,

and calm,

and normal. Or as normal as Raven could ever be.

"We know that you must feel strangeness, but please, do not let it bother you so," said the voice of Starfire.

Raven peeled back her eyelids, letting her heavily-lidded eyes take in the scene around her. Their eyes were still on her, but now it didn't bother her as much as it did. She started to wonder why, then pushed the thought away.

It would be addressed another time, in another place.

"Thanks, Starfire," Raven said feebly, giving a pained and weak smile. Sighing, she dropped her head again, snapping her eyes shut. Starfire's hand never left Raven's shoulder.

A quiet moment stretched on between the four of them, and oddly enough, it seemed comfortable. Whether it was Starfire's embrace, or just to general love and concern from Raven's friends, the mood was so oddly peaceful.

Then that quiet moment shattered.

"Where the hell are you going?" screamed Dr. Light, his voice as harsh as broken glass.

They could only see the back of Robin's cape as he left the room, slamming the door behind him and leaving Dr. Light in the room alone once more. Within another minute, Robin walked in onto the four of them, adding to their company.

"Everything okay in here?" he asked them.

There was never any real reply, besides noises of general agreement. He walked into the crowd of them, heading straight for Raven. Mirroring Starfire's concern, he put a hand to her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.

"Don't worry. Looks like everything is going to be fine."

"Really?" Raven asked him.

Dr. Light still fumed within the interview room. Once more, he had thrown his chair back, letting it clatter to the floor so hard it nearly broke, and was pacing the room again.

Robin caught his every movement, noting how he kept looking at the glass.

Still thinks he can break it, doesn't he.

Of course he thinks that, why wouldn't he?

Yeah, well, he'd be a fool for trying. Alien tech made those windows, that was made very clear to him.

Let's see how this plays out, was the last thought that crossed Robin's mind. A small smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth, though he tried to make his face remain neutral.

Just then, Dr. Light began banging at the window, trying to break it with his bare fists.

Cyborg snickered.

"He'll have to do better than that," he said, watching with amusement as Dr. Light continued to beat upon the pane.

Quietly, so that only Starfire could hear her, Raven said, "I'm gonna leave now." She pulled away from Starfire's embrace, only to feel her pull her back.

"Please do not," Starfire said back to her, just as quietly.

"Star…"

Dr. Light let out a cowl of pain and rage. Raven and Starfire spun their heads just in time to see his body staggering back away from the glass window, clutching at his arm fiercely.

The way he held it, it seemed like he had seriously hurt himself.

Confirmed by the blood that was now dripping past his knuckles, pooling in small red dots growing at his feet.

"Damn it," Robin sighed. "Just can't take a hint, can he?"

With another enraged scream, Dr. Light threw himself into the pane once more. Only further injuring himself.

"Better go stop him," Cyborg said, exiting the room, Robin traveling in his wake. With searing glances shot his way, Beast Boy went after the two of them.

Leaving Starfire and Raven with each other.

"I know that our personalities are very different from each other, but I know that you are in need of some comfort."

Raven's eyes shifted towards her, unsure what to make of all this. The strangled cries of Dr. Light being subdued from his rampage couldn't even break her stare.

"If not in need of comfort, then perhaps understanding… which I do not think I can give." She paused. "Your cloak sounds most interesting though, as does the mirror that Cyborg and Beast Boy had stumbled into." She paused again, unsure of how to continue.

"Star," Raven sighed, "again, thanks for the concern, but I think I just really need to be alone for a while."

Yes, that was what she needed. Simply to be alone once more.

With that, she sought out her solitude, letting the anguished screams of Dr. Light, and his toxic words of her, drown out of her head.