When taking in someone else's pain, even if the contact only lasted seconds there were always the visions. Well, visions was a term that didn't quite fit what happened, at least not completely. Raven would see flashes of the person's past, but the biggest take away was the feeling. These 'visions' were always far more 'feel' than 'see', making the empath vividly experience that person's emotions and struggle as if she were them during said event. It was intense to say the very least and often left her with the desperate need to meditate just to shake it off.

The very same thing had happened when she attempted to assist Terra that night when the teen in question was having one of her nightmares. Raven didn't usually get involved, opting to casually observe. After all, the others were far better at being openly caring than she was and Raven was acutely aware that Terra thought she was creepy.

This night, enough had been enough. No one else had managed to make any real progress with Terra and watching her suffer had become too hard for Raven to bear anymore. She was an empath after all.

Unfortunately, Terra hadn't taken to kindly to being helped, shooing them all away. Just as well, Raven needed to sort out everything buzzing around in her mind. It was like ghosts of Terra's past but a jumbled mess of fear, panic, sorrow, and disbelief.

Damian, as usual, took things far too professionally. But if what Raven had seen was correct. Then his concern was warranted and she was going to need to make some hard choices.

"What did you see?" Damian commanded as if Raven had done some kind of wrong.

"Nothing and even if I did, it wouldn't be any of your business." She was just as sharp as he was demanding. A knife to the hardness of his tone.

"Everything that goes on in the tower is my business. Just like it should be for all of you!" Damian spat.

"Last I checked, Kori was our leader. Not you." Raven didn't wait for him to respond, she turned on heel and left Damian to stand there and pout.

Finally, back in the calm darkness of her own room, Raven sighed and took a moment to simply breathe.

No one else had been inside of Raven's room and there were good reasons for that. The room was decorated like something from a fantasy novel. The huge space gave the Titan a lot to work with but the wide windows that made up an entire wall of the room were a bit of a problem. Thankfully there were automatic shutters and Raven could control them herself.

The glass of the window was covered in sigils, similar in nature to the others scattered throughout the room. Thankfully dry erase markers made removing, altering and adding sigils very easy and Raven was thankful that this way she wouldn't have to feel guilty about potential damage to the window.

The room was divided by two wide bookshelves that ran from ceiling to floor and sectioned off a quarter of the room to create a small makeshift workshop sort of nook. The bookshelves themselves were lined adjacent to the door making the nook invisible to anyone who might look in from her doorway.

On the other side of the door, on the left just as one walks in was a large wooden desk nearly completely covered in various items.

A thick, worn book sat, pages still open and marked with a feather tied to what looked like a singed stick of some kind. Candles were scattered all over the desk and room, some melted from previous use, others untouched entirely. Various other items spread across the dark wooden desk like a few smaller books, charms, small locked boxes, jars, writing utensils, small tools, crystals, stones, mirrors, photos, containers of incense and more nearly covered the entire surface of the desk.

Raven crossed the room, loosening the fastening of her cloak she pulled it off entirely and proceeded to give it a half-assed toss. It managed to land onto the top of her plain black dresser, knocking over a candle before falling off. A sigh, a few small soft steps, and the empath bent to nonchalantly pick up the dark fabric... The candle went ignored.

Raven gave it one more toss, this time onto her perfectly made bed. This time it didn't slide off and briefly she thought about how her possessions had spent more time laying on that bed then she ever had, but if Raven were to get rid of it then the others would surely find out and worry about her well being. Raven turned her attention away, in the end, she would keep it. After all, her sleeping habits were improving slowly.

Fetching her favorite incense from her desk, a holder and a lighter, Raven quickly set herself up to comfortably meditate. Soon the empath would be able to properly arrange the disturbing image in her mind and understand what she had actually seen within Terra's.

Terra had been struggling to fall back asleep since the entire nightmare affair. It had been bad enough dreaming about her trauma but then to wake up to all the Titans in her room fretting over her like she was some kind of...wounded animal.

She groaned and rolled over, curling up tighter with a weak attempt at cocooning herself inside of her comforter. It didn't help Terra feel any better, leaving her to fight the temptation to call out to Slade. He would only repeat himself; "Just a little longer." "Soon we'll be together love." She sighed, hating the wait.

It was another hour and a half before the sweet peace of sleep finally found her but Terra slept lightly, worried her past might find her again.

Raven's eyes opened and she drifted back down to the floor as if the weight of what she was now certain of was too great a weight for her to levitate any longer.

It was hard to be completely sure of the identities of all of a great many people who had started a witch hunt on Terra but watching-feeling Terra being tortured and tormented as such a young and good girl was nearly unbearable. This was one of the few moments Raven was even remotely grateful for the horrors she had been exposed to when Trigun had forced her to live in hell with him. It was hard for most of the things that happened on earth that would disturb most, to accomplish the same thing with her.

This though...it hit so incredibly close to home that it was hard for Raven to remain calm. Terra was a victim here as well after all. Being saved by Slade Wilson was only the start of his plan. The way he isolated her afterward, kept slowly suggesting that everyone was the enemy, everyone was against Terra and only he truly understood and cared for her. Slow, steady and persistent reprogramming was easy due to Terra's trauma. Her wounds were so fresh she couldn't see that they weren't being healed, they were being poisoned, infected.

All of this was far, far too much like her mother's story. Sure she had mocked, even sassed her mother for joining a cult but at a young age, Raven had been allowed to see into her mother's past as a way of warning her against following the same path. For all of her life, Raven had hyperfocused on anything and everything in her and her mother's past that involved Trigun, overlooking many things the empath was only now realizing.

Slade was using the very same technique's commonly used by cults to brainwash and recruit hundreds, sometimes thousands. The very same manipulative kind of suggestion that made perfectly normal people willing to commit mass suicide in just a few months time.

Her mother had been so afraid that she would fall victim to this same fate. Now Raven wasn't able to celebrate or feel grateful that she hadn't because she was watching it happen to someone else. Someone she cared about, someone who deserved better.

Sleep eluded Raven that night like it so often did. But this time, the quiet dark stretch of time was filled with planning and a little spell for good fortune in her future endeavors. After all, from what Raven knew of Terra, this wasn't going to be easy.

The next morning Starfire had the titans outside in the courtyard bright and early for combat training. As usual, Damian only really allowed Raven to stand close to him after an exchange of polite good mornings. Raven enjoyed the quiet sense of mutual respect she shared with Damian when he wasn't being the king of jerks.

The Titans stood by and watched as Kori quoted the warlords who had trained her for probably the millionth time since Raven had known her.

"Shall we dance?" Nightwing attempted to flirt only for Star to effectively whoop him in only a few seconds.

"Everyone pair off. Those not fighting watch and learn."

Seeing her chance, Raven approached Terra. The earth mover eyed her cautiously for a moment, but crossed her arms and focused on what was happening around them again. Clearly, she had no idea that Raven knew basically everything.

"Alright, Blue Beetle, Beast Boy, you're up."

Jaime smiled, his suit covering his face as he stepped into the large open space.

"Hope that bug of your's is ready to get smashed!" Beast Boy taunted, rolling his shoulders as he approached the other side of the opening.

"Go ahead and give it a try, grasshopper!"

"Begin!" Starfire's voice was a starting pistol and instantly the boys were upon each other.

Garfield morphed into a rino, stampeding towards Jaime. The bug chirped loudly and Jaime responded in kind by transforming his forearm into a blaster. The shots missed as Gar shifted into different animals, first a cheetah, then a bird, then a bat and more all to dodge while still making his way to Jaime.

Blue Beetle kept it up, the shots constantly missing. The bug chirped in frustration.

"I know I'm trying ok?"

Suddenly the bug's legs that curled over Jamie's shoulders sprung up and changed into canons, tracking Beast Boy's movements and blasting more precisely and automatically. Jaime laughed when he noted the difficulty Garfield seemed to be having with evasion now that the bug was assisting Jaime.

"Looks like the bug doesn't want to lose!" Jaime yelled.

"Too bad it's gonna!" Beast Boy roared as he shifted into a bear mid-air and plummeted down onto Jaime. Suddenly the bug chirped and the shoulder mounted blasters fired a full power shot. The light completely engulfed Garfield before he was sent flying and skidding across the ground.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! HE'S MY FRIEND!" Jaime yelled at the bug as he sprinted to check on Beast Boy. Starfire and Kori followed but only got a few steps.

"I'm good! I'm ok…" Garfield lifted his arm, as he rolled over and simply remained laying on the ground. Jaime bent over him.

"You sure?!"

"Yeah, I moooostly dodged. The fall hurt more honestly."

Jaime helped Garfield up and the two headed back to the group to watch the next pair square up.

"Raven, Terra. You're next." Kori commanded once the boys were out of the way.

Silently the two girls approached the clearing. It wasn't until Beastboy gave Terra a 'Whoop whoop!' of encouragement that either girl spoke.

"Ugh…hope you're ready over there Evanescence." Terra taunted, attempting to annoy Raven. Her response was a smirk and an equally sassy comeback.

"Evanescence? Really? Come on Terra you can do better than baby's first alternative rock band turned meme."

Terra smirked back, her hands glowing as she summoned up her powers, Raven also reading herself.

"Wow, so you can actually be kinda fun. Who would have thought Nightwish here could make jokes!"

The earth below Terra ripped itself free, her stance wide and low Terra began to levitate toward Raven, picking up speed as she went.

"Nightwish! That's more like it. Very clever. More obscure." Raven's reply was accompanied by a blast of magic towards Terra.

The first blast of energy behaved much like a regular energy blast similar to something Jaime could fire off but when Terra tilted her airborne stone platform to dodge the magical energy bent and nearly struck her. Terra cried out in surprise and veered wildly to the left to avoid being hit only to notice a wall of magic being raised right in front of her. With only seconds to react, she clenched her fists and focused, the large stone she was on breaking into slices and splitting to form vertical platforms along the wall of magic Raven had sent at her. Terra was banking on her momentum allowing her to run along the platforms but her timing was too frantic and she instead stumbled and sprinted along them. The magic wall sending the stone slabs flying right as her foot left them.

With already very loose footing it was no surprise when Terra's grasp on the vertical sprint became too unsteady and she slipped off of the second to the last slab.

The blond only free fell for a few seconds before she turned her body mid-air, flinging her arms out and grunting all in Raven's direction, sending stones of various sizes flying wildly in the empath's general direction.

Raven frantically sent up a barrier, the stones smashing into it with such speed and force that they were instantly obliterated, creating a massive dust cloud.

When the rocks seemed to stop coming Raven stayed on guard, barrier still up as she closed her eyes. She scanned the area mentally and picked up Terra's emotional response just quick enough to spin around and kick a stone away only to have another slam into her stomach. The wind knocked clean out of her, Raven managed to avoid becoming prone by ascending into the air and flying at Terra from inside the dust cloud.

"Can't feel my vibrations if I'm not on the ground can you?" Raven taunted, her tone only a little more playful than when she teased Beastboy. Her answer was a rock pillar shooting up about a foot from her left.

Raven purposely smashed it and used her powers to keep the dust from traveling too far from them to keep Terra blind.

"You're right I can't. But this dust is all basically earth so…"

Raven quickly sent a wave of magical energy out, blasting all of the dust straight in the direction she could feel Terra.

"Ugh!" Terra's hands shot up to her ears, her eyes shutting tightly. The dust had definitely damaged the camera in her eye and the magical energy had blown out her listening device. All according to Raven's plan. What wasn't according to Raven's plan was when Terra blindly started to send boulders flying in Raven's direction. The empath narrowly avoided them, distracted by her concern that she might have actually hurt Terra.

"Terra! I didn't mean to hurt you! Let me make sure you're ok!"

"Shut up!" Terra yelled, still sending stones flying at Raven. The other Titans were starting to call out to her now as well but she didn't seem to care.

Things didn't seem to stop until a boulder managed to slam into Raven, sending her flying with a loud cry and a thud. Starfire was the first to reach Terra, a firm yet gentle hand upon the girl's shoulder.

"Terra please!" Kori pleaded, soon joined by Beastboy while Dick and Damian sprinted over to check on Raven.

"Terra!" The addition of Garfield's voice snapped Terra out of the fight or flight mode she had gotten stuck in. Confused and with her eyes itching Terra rubbed at them while trying to shrug Kori off.

"Wh-What... what's going on?"

Damian opened his mouth, Nightwing stopping him before he started while he tried to shove the boulder out of the way.

"Give her...ughh...some air." Nightwing only struggled with the boulder for a few more seconds before it was covered in an inky blackness and shoved in a different direction then he was pushing. Raven groaned and struggled to stand, earning her some help from Nightwing.

Terra looked on, a mixture of guilt and fear swirling inside of her.

Raven was roughed up but otherwise relatively unharmed. Being half demon had its advantages.

"I'm ok. Tired mostly." Raven spoke smoothly but softly. Terra stared trying to think of something to say as Raven approached her with Dick's help.

"I-I didn't mean…"

"I know. That was a lot of dust. How are your eyes?"

"Wh-What the hell? I just almost crushed you and you're asking how I am?"

Before Raven could respond Kori and Dick chimed in.

"It's ok. Raven's alright."

"Yes. We'll call today's training over for today. If your eyes are still bothering you, Terra, you should go wash them out."

Terra groaned and turned suddenly, storming off.

"Ugh! Get off me. What wrong with all of you?!"

Raven watched her walk away knowing that she needed to give Terra some time to cool off but that there was also no time to lose.

Terra had honestly expected Beastboy to come and bother her almost right after she had washed up after training. She had even gone to grab a snack to take back to her room and see him in the common room but he only smiled and waved. It was a nice surprise and Terra was enjoying some alone time after eating when a knock sounded from her door.

She sighed softly and rolled her eyes while she peeled herself off of her bed and strolled to the door in a cozie hoodie.

"Listen Green bean I reall-oh." She started, cutting herself off when she saw that it was Raven at her door and the rather trendy change of clothes only added to her surprise. It wasn't often that she saw Raven in ripped up, black skinny jeans and a black band tee with the sides completely cut off exposing her dark blue crop top underneath.

"Wow. Wednesday Addams has a fashion sense." Terra teased.

"Yeah, not something that was easy to grasp for someone who was born on a different plane of existence and spent most of their late childhood to early teen years in actual hell. But you know...I like looking nice sometimes."

Terra's eyebrow rose as her arms crossed but she said nothing. Raven's expression hardened ever so slightly before she spoke again.

"Look I know I can be hard to get close to. We have that in common I think. But I came here because I need to talk to you about something important... privately." Raven's tone was flat but not as calm as it usually sounded.

Terra considered what Raven had said for a moment, expression hard before she shrugged a little and stepped aside.

"Come in." Her voice was more curious now, less on guard.

Raven stepped inside and Terra closed her door, even locking it before she joined Raven closer to the center of the space.

Now that Raven was actually here, actually about to confront Terra she was second-guessing herself. Even superheroes get nervous.

A small breath, to steady, to calm.

"I don't want to make you panic but I'll get right to it. I know about your connection to Deathstroke and I intentionally damaged the camera and listening device you had during our training."

Terra tensed the second the words left Raven's mouth. Her entire body burned with cold anxiety as she tried not to panic but ultimately failed. She was in a battle ready stance instantly.

"So you came here to finish the job huh?! Well, it won't be easy to take me out I-"

Raven put her hands out in front of her.

"Terra calm down! I'm not here to kill you or anything like that! No one else knows but I did tell Damian that if he doesn't see me at dinner tonight to go to my room and find a letter I wrote explaining everything I know to him."

"S-so what the hell do you want then?! Blackmail or something?!"

"To help you."

"What?!"

Raven took a tentative step forward, hands out in clear view. Terra tensed a little but seemed less panicked now.

"I saw your past. What your village did to you…"

Breaking out in a cold sweat, all of Terra's furry was knocked out of her as she struggled to not remember.

"I saw how he saved you…"

Her breath caught and her stomach dropped.

"And I saw how he kept you alone, fed you all the sweet lines you needed to hear. Told you that everyone else was against you, no one but Slade would ever understand you...love you…"

The more Raven spoke the more awful Terra felt and when she finally spoke her voice was tiny and fragile.

"H-how…?"

"When I tried to help you with your nightmares.

When I heal someone I'm actually taking their pain into myself. That's why when I do it to someone who's badly injured I pass out. I feel everything they feel so they don't have to suffer.

Usually, this comes with the added bonus of seeing and feeling parts of that person's past. I hate it but I can't control that part yet."

"So why not rat me out? Why not tell everyone and stop me?"

"Because you're not a criminal Terra. You're a victim in all of this and I want to help you."

Irritated, Terra tensed again, even raising her voice when she spoke next.

"I'm not a victim!"

"Terra I've seen this before. Everything Slade did, said...all of it."

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Let me show you." Raven reached out before Terra could back away and the moment her finger touched Terra's forehead she was eased into visions from the perspective of a woman but whom it was remained a mystery.

This woman was in her home, being abused by her family, much like Terra, was saved by a mystery man just in time, just like Terra. The man took her in, kept her alone and promised her all the things she could ever want, teased her with them while also painting everyone else as her enemy.

Terra watched this mirror of her own experiences all the way up until the woman was being offered as a bride to a literal demon, a monster made flesh. It was only then that Raven pulled Terra out of the vision and the blond fell to her knees in tears. There was too much, all of this. She was completely overwhelmed.

"Who...who was she?" Terra whispered.

"My mother...that was how Trigun got to her…"

"That was a god damn cult, wasn't it? That was how a cult turned her into a follower…"

Raven said nothing, the air heavy with the implication. Terra pulled her knees up and cried freely, great heaving sobs to the point where Raven thought she might be sick.

Terra hardly even realized that Raven was still even there, let alone that she had teleported out of the room then back again. Terra didn't notice much of anything until a gentle hand touched her shoulder and she nearly jumped seven feet, head snapping up with her fight or flight instincts on full alert.

It was Raven, expression gentle, her hand still on Terra's shoulder and in the other, she held a cold water bottle.

"Drink."

Practically shut down, Terra sluggishly obeyed as if on autopilot. Raven remained quiet but close and supportive.

Eventually, Terra stopped crying and Raven helped her up, sitting her onto her bed, making sure she drank the entire bottle and one more for good measure. Terra's eyes were empty, distant and she seemed like she wasn't even present in her own skin.

It was nearly an hour and a half later when Raven felt Terra move without any instruction or guidance. Raven was sitting on the end of her bed, meditating while she waiting for Terra to come out of her shock knowing that it was best that way.

Terra sat up languidly, hardly ever remembering getting onto her bed let alone laying down. She did remember the vision, however, along with everything it made her realize. Ever so slowly, meekly, Terra moved toward the end of her bed. She sat next to Raven, knees up with her arms wrapped around them. She stared out at nothing, but this time she was present albeit with her head nearly bursting with everything she now knew.

Raven didn't speak at all. Silently she opened her eyes, glancing at Terra without turning her head before joining her in staring ahead at nothing.

"Your mom huh…?" Terra's voice was so small and strained Raven wondered if she was going to be ok.

"Yeah…"

The silence returned, spanning only a few minutes but feeling like years. Terra didn't move a muscle and neither did Raven for a long five minutes. Terra struggled to completely wrap her mind around everything while also trying to think of something to say. It wasn't until Raven slowly descended onto the bed, no longer floating a foot above it, when Terra took a breath and opened her mouth.

"I just... it's all the same...all of it. I don't want to believe that everything was a lie. But I'm not stupid...I know Slade Wilson is bad news, but I thought everyone else, hell the whole world was worse…I was willing to accept everything Slade did because he made the world seem worse. "

"I bet you never thought you'd fall for a manipulative murderer when you imagined your first relationship as a kid," Raven commented rather dryly, regretting the words the second they left her mouth.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"No. No, you're right…" Terra sighed and let her arms slip away from her legs, loosening up a little.

"If kid me could see what I've become...well she'd probably think the powers are cool as hell but…" she trailed off.

It was in this moment that Raven realized she wasn't very good at comforting others outside of using her powers. It was frustrating feeling like she was just awkwardly sitting here trying pathetically to help.

"I just... I feel so stupid. You think after everything I've been through I'd know the difference between good and evil!" Terra groaned loudly, annoyed with herself.

"I understand why you feel that way but you really shouldn't. There have been thousands of cults over the decades and millions fall for their tactics no matter how strong or intelligent.

At least you weren't far gone enough to not see the truth when confronted with it." Raven hoped she wasn't coming off as preachy.

"Yeah, now I need to figure out how to deal with it." Terra's eyes grew wide, a realization striking her suddenly.

"Oh man, how the hell am I going to tell the others?! What the fuck am I going to do about Slade!?"

"We can figure all of that out later. For now, it's important that you let yourself feel and hurt so that you can get it out of your system and start to heal."

"Wait 'we'?"

"The entire reason Slade was able to get in your head was because you were alone. I might not be the warmest person in the world but I can make sure you're never alone again…"

Despite everything, the confusion, hurt and betrayal she felt, Terra smiled a little.