I do not own any rights to the Teen Titans or any other characters that may appear in this story.

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He found her.

It would have been better, far better if one of the other three had found her. They would have kept him from seeing her. Seeing the condition she was in. The others would have been hurt, devastated over what happened to her. She was their friend, their dearest friend, their sister, if not in blood then in spirit. It tore at them when they did see what had happened to her. But they would have kept him from seeing her. They knew how it would affect him. What the impact would have been. What the ramifications would be to his mind and sanity.

Unfortunately, he found her.

They had been searching for several days, since she had been captured. How she had been captured was completely unknown to them. Who had captured her was unknown as well. All they knew was that her communicator was found abandoned with blood on it. That's what worried them the most. She was the most powerful of them all, yet oddly enough, the most vulnerable. And so they began the search. All of them had been searching; they had even called in the backups, the honorary members, everyone they could think of to assist in the search. And there was no trace. No clue. Nothing. No sign of where she was, where she had been taken, what happened to her.

And no one searched harder, longer, than he did.

And so he found her.

He had gone without sleeping, without eating, occasionally taking a sip of water when his mouth became too dry. He was everywhere, looking at everything. Using every resource he had within him to continue searching for her. Investigating anything that even might be a clue, a hint, of where she was and who had taken her. His mind moving back and forth between focusing on the hunt and panic over what happened. Not that he showed it.

The others periodically would go back to the Tower and rest, a couple of hours here, a couple there, a quick bite to eat, a short nap, then resuming the search. They split up the search. Sometimes they themselves would go out, leaving one behind to coordinate with the others. Much of the time, they would try, try, to keep up with him. It was difficult. He moved so quickly, never stopping. Despite the exhaustion, the ache in his heart, he continued to search.

Then, on the fourth day, he stopped. The tracking device in his communicator simply stopped in place. At the time, two of the three were out searching. The one left behind, the one most qualified to monitor glanced at the screen and saw that he had not moved for several minutes. This had happened before, and he was reluctant to call the others. Another ten minutes passed and he made a decision.

"Guys, he's stopped."

The response was immediate. "Has he reported in?"

"No. He just stopped."

Silence. "Can you tell if he's still awake? He might have fallen asleep."

The titan monitoring the search paused. He attempted to read the limited data from the communicator. "Umm, it, oh god, it doesn't seem like it. Heart rate is up, respiration is up. You don't think…."

"He found her."

"Please, no. He hasn't called in."

Silence. "Where is he?"

The titan monitoring the search paused. "He's at the old Moorgate factory in the new Industrial section on the North side of Jump. It's been deserted for a couple of years. Shit."

"Yeah, shit."

There was a pause in the conversation. "Meet you there in ten minutes. We'll regroup before we go in."

"Do you really think he's…"

A bone-weariness came over the communicator to the titan monitoring the search, "Yes, he found her. This won't be good. For anyone."

Ten minutes later, the three titans met outside the factory. Although they had been searching for days for their missing partner, they were hesitant to go it. To search is one thing, to actually KNOW, to accept the reality of the situation was another. Then, there was the added heartache of seeing how their friend would be facing his nightmare. With a deep breath, they entered the deserted factory.

It was dark, dusty, dirty. Late afternoon had not helped the situation. The main floor was filled with various debris. What little afternoon light was filtering in the large windows, half of them broken. In the distance, sobbing was heard. The weeping was from the core of the person, there was nothing left, no hope, no light, no life. Just a heart rending crying that no one who had the slightest bit of compassion could not feel sympathy for.

"Could he just be weary? Maybe he hasn't found her…."

"No, he found her." The speaker was ready to break as well. He could hear the heart-ache. The three titans moved closer to the source of the crying. As they moved to the far end of the floor, they saw a figure kneeling down. He was cradling something in his arms. It wasn't moving, but he was rocking back and forth, crying all the while. Calling her name, sobbing to rend the heart.

Garfield Logan had found his beloved Raven, dead.

Robin was tired. While he had slept some, the search had been a drain on him as well. He had half suspected where this would end. His mental connection with Raven had been of no use since this started. Whether it was because she was unconscious or there was nothing left to connect too, he didn't know. But it was mentally and emotionally draining. Still, he had a job to do.

Before the other two could move closer, he held his arms up to halt them. "Guys, hold on a moment. Cy, take pictures of everything, including infra-red and x-ray. Circle around them, give them a good 20 feet. Go especially for the floor, then slowly zoom in on Ra…on the body." He paused and gathered his composure. "Take as many as you can. Starfire, can you fly right now?"

The Tamaranean looked at Robin before answering. "How can you even ask…"

Robin cut her off softly but firmly. "No, just…no." He took a deep breath. "We need evidence. If we're going to catch whoever did this, we need every bit of evidence." He started breathing heavily. "You can't go near them."

Cyborg replied, "Robin, Gar is right there. He's already contaminated everything."

"I know. I have to hope that there may still be something left." Lowering his head, he continued, "Anyway, there's no way on earth I'd ask him to move away, not now." He looked at his friends, "Please," his voice cracked, "Just…do as I ask. Afterwards, we'll….We'll move closer."

In a whisper, Starfire said, "I cannot fly."

Robin let out another deep breath. "That's ok, Star. It was more of a faint hope than a real request. I'd be really surprised if you could." And he grasped her hand with his and shook it in sympathy. "Cy, whenever you feel up to it."

Without speaking, the half-metal titan began to circle the two. Activating all of the telemetry in his mechanical eye, all of the scanners in his arms along all of the available frequencies, he began to record. Moving clockwise, he drifted slowly to the right. As he moved, the view of his former teammate came into sight as he moved around Beast Boy. After a moment, he stopped and put his left hand to his mouth and began to tremble. He turned away from the body. Tears were streaming from his one human eye.

The boy wonder quickly left his girlfriend and moved over to him, "I know it's hard." He took a look at the tableau and paled. "You have to do it. It's ugly, but it needs to be done."

"Do you see what they DID to her? My God, I don't …" He started to tremble again.

"I know." The titan leader looked again at the two. "It's as bad as I've ever seen a body. And I've seen the Joker's work. We still need that evidence."

The two were looking at the wreck of what was once a human being. Bruises covered most of the body. Limbs were arrayed in unnatural ways as various bones had been broken. She was covered in dried blood and, from the smell, various forms of filth. It was obvious she had been beaten to death and the body savaged both before and after. And it had taken a while.

Robin assisted Cyborg in his route around the two titans. Holding onto his shoulder and whispering support.

And all the while, Beast Boy held onto the shattered head and shoulders of Raven, rocking back and forth and weeping.

It took about 15 minutes, since Robin insisted on being thorough. But finally, the two titans were back with Starfire, who had not moved. Cyborg and Starfire looked at Robin.

"One more thing." Robin took out his communicator, opened it and pushed a button for the Jump City Police Department. When a voice was heard on the other end, he said, "We found Raven's body at the old Moorgate factory. We'll need forensics and an ambulance to transport the body." Before giving the person on the other end any chance to reply, Robin closed the communicator.

He inhaled, slowly exhaled and nodded. He began to walk towards the bodies, Starfire and Cyborg right behind.

Beast Boy had stopped howling earlier. Even his weeping was quieter, although it continued. Robin reached his friend and put his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Gar," he whispered, "I'm so sorry."

At that, both the metal titan and the warrior princess broke down into tears as they kneeled next to their comrades. No one said anything. No one moved. They just stayed there and mourned their friend.

They were there, unmoving, unspeaking for about 10 minutes before the sounds of sirens was heard. After a moment, noises were heard at the door of the main floor and the police entered the building. With guns drawn, they moved towards the titans, shouting order to stand away from the body.

The titan leader had not trained with the Batman for nothing. With an air of authority, he put his hand up, signaling the men to wait for a moment. They stopped short and quieted down. Turning back to his teammates, Robin bent down next to Beast Boy.

"Gar..Gar." There was no response. "Gar, you need to get up now. We have to let the police do their work." The green teen looked up at his friend, confused. Then he looked around and saw the police and his eyes opened wide. He looked back at Robin and shook his head and began to bend over Raven once more.

"No, Gar, I'm sorry, you need to let go of her for the moment. Please, stand up." The green boy shook his head again.

"Gar…." Robin's voice cracked, "you can't stay here, please get up." He leaned over and, putting his left arm under Beast Boy's arm, lifted him up. The teen was not particularly heavy at the best of times, now, after days of going without food and sleep, he was unable to offer any resistance to being lifted up. The boy wonder turned him around. Whatever had covered Raven's body had transferred, somewhat, to Beast Boy. That didn't matter.

Robin pulled him into a hug; Garfield Logan lay his head on the other's shoulder and resumed crying. Cyborg and Starfire both moved in to join in the hug and, together, the three of them slowly moved Beast Boy away from the body of his lost love. When the quartet reached the door, Robin broke away from the others.

"Cy, Star, can you get Gar home? I need to stay here and discuss this with the police."

"Sure Robin," Cyborg answered. "We'll get him back to the Tower and cleaned up."

"If you can, try to get him to bed and let him sleep. He's got to be exhausted after so many days and the stress of finding…" Robin paused, "well, the stress."

"Yes, Robin. I believe we will be able to convince him to rest." Starfire replied.

"Worse comes to worst, I'll give him a sedative." Cyborg said. All the while, Beast Boy just stood there, face dazed, almost half asleep as it was. The tears were still flowing, mingling with the dirt, the sweat and the shadow that had grown over the four days of his search. He looked ready to collapse.

"OK, I'll meet you back at the Tower shortly." Robin moved towards the police officer in charge and the other three left for their home. It took about an hour, but the Titan leader finally addressed all of the questions and issues. He had promised to share all of the footage that Cyborg had taken with the Department and the police in turn had offered to share the results of the autopsy and any forensic evidence they found. Everyone wanted the ones who did this to one of the city's heroes.

Robin took one last look at Raven, at the condition she had been left in and turned away. He left the factory, but instead of turning towards the Tower, he looked around the area. He turned towards his right and began to run down the street. After about 100 feet, he removed his gun from his belt and aimed the grapple hook and line up to the building on the left. It was roughly four stories tall and the grapple hooked onto the railing surrounding the roof. The line lifted him up to the top. The boy wonder leaped over the railing and ran to the center of the roof.

Then Robin sat down and began to cry.