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

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Over the next few days, the Tower was a bizarre combination of activity and lethargy. Robin and Cyborg poured over the pictures and data that he had taken from the factory, searching for any clues as to the person or persons who killed their friend. Surprisingly, the area was extremely clean from any details other than the obvious; it was a run-down, deserted factory.

So they waited for the autopsy report and the forensics report from the police. They, of course, shared what they found from the pictures, what little it was. Otherwise, they searched the net, talked to people, ran down any sort of tip. Anything they could do, anything that was available to avoid the one thing that was really on all of their minds.

Raven's funeral and burial. The actual ceremonies would have to wait for the police to release the body after all of the examinations had been done, but the preparations still needed to be made.

And so, finally, after another four days, Robin made the necessary calls that he was trying to avoid. He spoke with a reputable funeral home and the Jump City Memorial Cemetery. Before meeting with them, the titan leader tried to speak with Beast Boy about the arrangements. After all, they were partners, lovers, companions for more than two years and friends and teammates for years before that. He should be consulted about anything related to Raven.

At least that was the idea. Instead, Robin stood outside Beast Boy's door and tried to get him to answer. Since they had gotten back from the factory, Beast Boy not entered Raven's room; the room where the couple had lived together for the past two years. Instead, he had entered his old, abandoned room and not come out, not spoken. Not even acknowledged the others.

There were signs he was still alive, food disappeared during the night, at times there was crying behind the door. But he would not answer any questions or requests to enter. God alone knew what was going on with him, what condition he was in. The remaining three titans respected the green shapeshifter's mourning. They only wished they could help.

Starfire helped as she could around the tower. She was unable to muster up the 'joy to fly', so her abilities to patrol the city were limited. Still, she provided support, kept the tower clean and supplied meals to the others. Surprisingly, she kept to basics like sandwiches rather than her famous puddings. The sandwiches were good, but a little heavy on the mustard.

Once Robin was convinced he would get no assistance from the near catatonic Beast Boy, he made the decisions as best he could. It would be a closed casket due to the condition of the body. After considerable thought, he decided as well to make it a private viewing and funeral. The last thing that Raven would have wanted would be her precious privacy violated. He also didn't think he and the others could take much public interaction at this time. It was difficult enough maintaining a semblance of action after her loss, trying to do so with hundreds, if not thousands of well-wishers would overwhelm the teens.

To avoid that, the press would not be notified about the arrangements. There was little choice about the obituary. The death of a titan was headline news. So, the headlines were screaming that Raven had been killed by an assailant or assailants unknown. No details were given beyond that. That didn't stop the newspapers and reporters from speculating and guessing. Most of them wrong, some of them close. The actual obituary was simple: Raven died after being assaulted by unknown assailants. She left behind a companion, Garfield Logan (Beast Boy) and dear friends, Victor Stone (Cyborg), Princess Koriand'r (Starfire) and Robin. The funeral services were to be private and closed to the public.

That was the extent of the Obituary. Robin had some difficulty describing her relationship with Gar. Partner didn't do it justice; they weren't married and mate seemed…vulgar. So, finally he settled on companion, even though that seemed inadequate to describe the two of them.

The casket would be simple. There would be a brief funeral. What was there to say? The titans knew who she was, her accomplishments, her love for her 'real' family, her love for Gar and her devotion to doing right. They didn't need to be reminded. A priest was probably not appropriate, but the funeral director would give the eulogy. Robin didn't think he would be able to hold it together to do one and he knew the others, especially Beast Boy, would not be able to speak for more than ten seconds without breaking down.

He chose a secluded gravesite, out of the way of the rest of the other plots in the cemetery, on top of a hill overlooking the bay, with its view of Titan's Tower. Somehow, he thought Raven would appreciate that.

Finally, the police sent Robin the results of the autopsy and the forensics report. It was as bad as he expected and he had no intention of telling the others all of the details. She had been beaten to death, which finally occurred from a skull fracture. There were burns, cuts and broken bones throughout her body.

She had been raped, multiple times, both vaginally and anally, by a number of individuals. Just reading the report sickened the team leader. However, it was the first real clue he had. More than one individual was involved. Eventually, the police would be able to do a DNA test on the various bodily fluids and waste materials that they gathered from the remains, but that would take time. It doesn't happen in five minutes like on TV shows. It could be weeks, perhaps months before it was all sorted out and then, if they were lucky, matches would be made against the national databases to determine who was involved.

Meanwhile, they had a funeral to attend.

In attendance at the funeral home, Robin, Starfire and Cyborg sat together and stared at the closed casket while the director said a few words. None of them really heard what was said. Between the heartbreak the three were undergoing and what happened with Beast Boy, there wasn't much to be said.

For Beast Boy did not attend the funeral. The three had stood outside the locked door to his room for nearly an hour and pleaded with him to come with them. Finally, Robin lost his temper and told him to get out and pay his respects to Raven if he really loved her. That had been an unwise thing to do.

The green changeling had gone completely berserk at that statement. He howled, screamed incoherently, pounded on the other side of the door, threw furniture at the walls and door, creating large dents. At one point, a hole was made in the wall and the remaining titans could see the destruction that statement had caused.

Needless to say, the three had backed up from the door considerably.

Starfire said, "My dear friend, we will not disturb you. We will leave now. I will come back to see you after we return from the funeral." She turned and went back up the hallway, the two boys following her and the howling and screaming slowly fading as they put space between them and their grieving friend.

The gravesite ceremony was also quiet. The traditional Christian burial service didn't seem appropriate, given her heritage. Robin had tried to determine what the Azerathean burial ceremony was, but there was no information that he could gather, so he settled for a Buddhist ceremony. Given her meditative rituals, it seemed as close as they could get. It really didn't matter; none of the three titans really heard the ritual. Cyborg and Starfire were crying and Robin was trying not to, but was consumed by memories of his friend. At least a few tears leaked down his face.

Again, the press, as was their wont, had attempted to interrupt the funeral. While they couldn't get into the funeral home, the cemetery was a public area, so they got as close as they could and took pictures. Most had the decency to be silent during the ceremony. Afterwards, there was some attempt to question the three grieving titans, much of it along the lines of "Where's Beast Boy?" None of the three answered. They weren't about to discuss his private grief and his near madness. Instead, they returned to the sanctuary of Titans Tower.

The three sat together in the common room, Starfire curled up next to Robin, silently crying. Robin was holding onto her and staring straight ahead. Cyborg was on the other side of the couch with his head bent down, silent as well. They sat there for hours as there didn't seem to be much of anything else to do. Finally, silently, Cyborg got up and went to his room to go to bed and recharge. He didn't really need to recharge, but it was the nearest he could get to sleep and he truly craved the ability to turn his mind off at this point.

After a few more minutes, Starfire fell asleep in the teen detective's arms. He sat there for a while, holding her, taking comfort from her closeness, her comfort, her love. Robin could, barely, understand was Beast Boy was going through. If something had happened to Starfire, he knew he'd be a wreck as well. That's one of the many reasons he was trying desperately to be understanding with his young friend and give him as much leeway as possible.

Finally, growing restless, Robin carried Starfire to the room they shared and put her to bed. He wasn't tired, at least not physically tired, emotionally yes, but not mentally and physically. So he returned to the Common Room and, searching for something to do, he began to go through the titan's e-mail.

There were thousands of notices. Robin ran them through a sorting program that Cyborg designed to get rid of the cranks, crackpots, spam and the obscene. That still left hundreds. Focusing on those that were offering condolences for Raven, the boy wonder split those into three sections, those from children (who would need a rather delicate touch), the general letters of sorrow (who would get a thank you) and those who seemed to have some real issues with Raven's death, either because they knew her personally or she had saved their lives. Those he'd have to think about how to answer. Maybe Starfire could give him a hand with those.

As he was working his way through the sorting, the screen filled with static and then the image resumed. This time, rather than a e-mail, the image on the screen was of a rather heavyset man with long red hair tied up in a pony tail. The man was clean shaven and wearing all black. He had a rather sad look on his face.

"Control Freak! I am NOT in the mood for your games today." Robin snarled.

"No," the man responded in a quiet voice, "not Control Freak."

"Huh?"

The image on the screen took in a large breath and let it out again. "Look, my real name is Albert. Just this once, could you call me that?"

"Uhh, ok, Albert." Robin was more than a bit confused at this.

"I just wanted to offer my condolences over what happened to Raven." You could see he was also fighting back tears. "This kind of thing isn't supposed to happen. You don't DO that kind of thing to people."

"You know what happened to Raven?"

Albert nodded, "Yeah, I hacked into the cops' database. I was curious. I didn't think anything could really happen to one of you guys. I mean, come on, we fight, yeah, but no one really gets hurt. I don't even steal anything big, just stuff I'm interested in. I couldn't believe it when I read the reports."

The man on the screen took another breath. "Look, none of this is supposed to be for real. I mean when I fight you guys it's not meant to really hurt you. If I wanted to kill you, I'd transport you into a National Geographic special about volcanoes, or deep sea marine. Or I'd just send you to some outer space movie. You guys are NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE!" And Albert began weeping.

Robin was completely taken aback. Sure, he knew Control Freak didn't even make the D-list of villains, but to hear him upset like this was….weird. "Albert, did you have anything to do with this?" he whispered.

The distraught man shook his head. "No. What was done to poor Raven was horrible. I'm a bad guy, but not a really bad guy. I would have been at the funeral today, but you guys closed it off to the public. Can't blame you really." He paused and gained control over himself, "How's Beast Boy? I know he and Raven were tight."

The titan leader considered momentarily. "How much to tell him? He's concerned, but he's a bad guy." Then he mentally chuckled, "But not a really bad guy."

"He's really upset as you can probably guess. Pretty much in seclusion. I'm sure it'll take a while for him to pull himself together."

"Not surprised. Hell, everyone in the villain community knew about those two years ago." Albert let out a weak chuckle, "It was so obvious to everyone, Red X was making all sorts of Beauty and the Beast Boy jokes."

"Yeah," Robin answered back with his own chuckle, "I don't know who those two thought they were fooling, other than themselves. From the beginning, those two couldn't stay away from each other. No one took Raven's protests seriously."

From there, the conversation went on to reminiscing about Raven, about Beast Boy, about battles between the titans and Control Freak. It was all good natured, a way to share memories about a person they both knew and cared about. And would miss.

Finally, after about a half hour, the conversation paused. Then Albert said, "Look, I'll leave you to your business. I just wanted to give my condolences for Raven." He paused again, "Uh, look, I…" Again a pause. Robin waited.

Albert shut his eyes and said softly, "This may not be true. Guys in the villain business talk a lot, brag a lot and make all sorts of statements. Most of it is pure bullshit, but just in case….." He took a deep breath, "There's rumors going around that several days before Raven was found, the Five were bragging that they had captured a titan. No details, just that they captured someone. It wasn't until Raven's death was announced that I gave any real thought to it. As I said, it might be all bullshit, most of what those guys say is, but….just in case, I wanted you to know."

Robin's eyes opened slightly wider. This was the closest they had gotten to a lead since Raven disappeared. It even made some sense. Gizmo was a genius, maybe he figured some way to capture Raven and suppress her powers. Thinking further, Kid Wykkyd's teleportation ability would explain how Raven's body had ended up in the abandoned factory with no traces whatsoever of an intruder.

Finally, they were now five guys. Jinx had left and there was no more restraint on a bunch of crooks not known for being remotely decent. Gizmo had a real attitude. Mammoth was brainless at best and crude. Billy Numerous was about as much a low-life as you could ever find. It even made sense from the existing evidence. There were multiple different fluids found with the body. So there had to be at least two or three people, probably more.

The detective answered, "Thanks for the tip, Albert. I'll look into it. If there's any evidence that they WERE involved, I'll leave your name out."

The cleaned up Control Freak let out a big breath, "Thanks Robin. It may turn out to be nothing, like I said, there's a lot of talk, not much of it is true. Still, I want you to get whoever did that to Raven. She didn't deserve it. No one does." With that Albert broke the transmission.

Robin sat there and pondered. The more he considered it, the more it seemed like he had his first real suspects, but no evidence for it at all. And no way to find the suspects until they reappeared. So what to do?

Well, telling the other titans was out. He didn't want three vigilantes on the loose ready to kill five crooks who may not have had anything to do with it. And even if they DID beat, rape and murder Raven, the titans should not kill; he would do anything to keep them from destroying themselves. Even if it meant hiding his suspicions until there was absolute proof.

With that, Robin went to bed and slept the sleep of the emotionally exhausted, holding onto Starfire for comfort, as she held on to him.