A/N: I know that I'm completely messing with the Titan timeline and their true history. I embrace that. Think of it as creative license. Also, this one is a 'future fic'. An idea of what might be come, oh, 6 years post the end of the series. C'mon, folks, embrace the possible alternate beginning of our favorite Titans with me!

Disclaimer: Not mine. No money made, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

Echoes
by Em

"I don't regret the choices that I've made / I know you feel the same"
- Beloved, VNV Nation

Endings and Beginnings
(01: Ten Years Ago...)

It was nearly impossible for her to believe that so much time had lapsed in what had seemed to her to be the blink of an eye. At 23, she didn't feel particularly old and she certainly didn't feel the world weary sophistication that having lived through all of the experiences she lived through should have provided her.

It had come too quickly, this moment in time. She wasn't prepared for it. If she had more time, she thought, perhaps she could have better prepared herself mentally.

'What would you have done?' the voice inside asked sarcastically, 'Written a script?'

She shook her head, knowing Knowledge was right. There was no way to prepare for such a moment. And yet, she could not help the feeling that she was no more grown now on this sunny August morning than she had been ten years ago. And that, ultimately, was what scared her motionless not half a block away.

She was torn in two by that fear, torn between her loyalty to keeping old promises and the fear making her stay locked where she was.

Ten years ago, she had been nothing but a scared orphan in a strange land with no control, no way to defend herself or her pride and certainly no thought of how to go about the mission that had been charged to her. She had been alone and lonely, but too used to the feeling to recognize it's presence.

She remembered only feeling dwarfed by the size of the palace to which she was brought, the despair in her heart which she had clumsily tried to mask. She had been a child then, young and scared and shivering inside her cold outer shell.

One man had taken pity on her then...

He found her in the street outside the door she had been ushered out of, looking about her aimlessly. "Where will you go now?" She raised her clear amethyst eyes to stare into his hard, but earnest face and had no answer for him.

And while that pity had not extended to an offer of help for her cause, he had offered her a roof over her head...

"You can stay here for a few days," he told her and there was a soothing familiarity to the brusqueness of his tone, the no-nonsense pace of his gait as he led her into the enormous castle-like mansion. "at least while you get your bearings and decide on your next course of action." And even though inside, she had wanted to thank him, the words of gratitude forming on her tongue, her mouth did not open to release them and her only response was a crisp, unemotional nod of her tiny head.

He never once asked why she wasn't speaking. She hadn't spoken since the moment her request for help had been rebuked with the harsh reminder of who she was and what she was meant to bring about. After all, she had understood that if her earnest plea had found no welcome, no other words she could offer would either.

For days, she roamed the lonely halls of the manor house while she wondered what to do and where to go. Then, she had felt she had no options left. If the world's finest super heroes refused to help her, where else could she go? She had no hope, no options, the choices left to her to make only one of where to go to nurse her strength long enough to return and fight alone.

That was, until he found her.

"Well...who might you be?" he asked, what would become his trademark half-smirk already formed on his lips. She hadn't an answer for him either, but he didn't seem deterred by her blank expression. He cocked his head to the side when she failed to answer and the half-smirk turned into an honest smile, "I'm Richard, but everyone calls me Dick." And although the words of introduction formed in her mind just as responses to any questions she was asked formed in her mind, something strange happened that even she didn't expect.

"Raven," she spoke, her voice monotonous and betraying none of the surprise she felt at having spoken at all.

He lifted his head and leaned back against the wall, "As in the bird?" he asked. She nodded, half wondering whether her mouth would decide to cooperate and speak again. He smiled and chuckled, but she wouldn't understand his source of amusement for quite some time. "No kidding...?"

He hadn't been much older than she was when they met, but it would be days before she learned that he was actually a year older than she was. Somehow, The Batman had figured out that masks and secret identities were pointless as far as she was concerned and he had never bothered to hide his from her. She wouldn't learn until later how strange that actually was...

"Bruce isn't much for taking in strays," Richard admitted casually. At the time, he hadn't known she had first met Bruce Wayne as his alter ego. He met her eyes and somehow managed to interpret the incredulous lines of her expression even though they were practically invisible to everyone else, "Present company excluded." She had turned her eyes away, but she could feel the weight of his glance still on her, could feel the way it changed from amused to considering. "Although I have a feeling you're not like most strays, are you?"

Raven had remained staring at the horizon, but her voice shattered the silence between them in one of her rare moments of speech, "No," she answered, her voice soft and unemotional, "I am not."

A few days turned into weeks and it hadn't been until a month had passed that Raven knew she had taken advantage of Bruce's charity enough. She had promised him her silence and for some reason, he had believed her. Richard stopped her before she could leave, however.

"Where will you go from here?" he asked her, unconsciously mirroring his mentor's question.

Unlike with his mentor, Raven answered him, "I do not know."

"Well, maybe it'll help if you know why you're here...what you're looking for?" he offered.

She lowered her head, "I will not find what I search for," she answered.

"What is it?" he pressed.

She turned to look at him, "Help," she answered.

He somehow had coaxed a promise from her that she would give him one more day. She had no hope or any expectations, but he had been so kind to her, she could think of no way to refuse him one more day, so she had stayed and she had waited. She was not to know for years what had happened behind closed doors to eventually lead to the knock on her door the morning after her promise.

"What are you doing?" Raven asked, taking in the appearance of the Boy Wonder under the door's threshold.

"I know where we're going," he answered simply. "It'll take us a few hours to get there."

"Us?" she asked.

He grinned at her and spread his arms wide, "Well, you did ask for help," he shrugged, "I hope I'm not a disappointment."

She thought that since she hadn't expected anyone to help her, he couldn't possibly be a disappointment. She also thought he was human and they would need a lot more than he could offer to defeat Trigon. "You do not even know why I need the help," she spoke seriously.

"I know enough," he answered. "And you'll tell me the rest as we go along," he added nonchalantly, motioning for her to leave the darkened confines of the room she had occupied for a month at Wayne Manor. "We should be going if we want to make Jump City by nightfall."

"Why Jump City?" she asked as she helped him gather a few supplies into the saddle bags of a motorcycle.

"There's someone there I want to meet," he answered, "His name's Victor Stone and I think he can help us."

She had thought he was unwise and headstrong, but Bruce had silently blessed their departure and thus Robin and Raven, the two birds, began their association. Ten years ago.

Four years ago, that all ended.

And in the end, as in the beginning, only Raven and Robin were left, although both knew neither would stay.

"Where will you go from here?" Robin asked, echoing a question from long ago.

And like both times the question had been asked before, Raven had no idea what to answer and like both times the question had been asked before, Raven responded in a completely unexpected way. This time, Raven smiled. "This is the second time you've asked me that question, Boy Wonder," she chided, even though she knew he no longer fit the childish nickname.

Robin had an excellent memory and as soon as she spoke the words, he remembered when the first time had been. "It seems I'm perpetually meant to ask you that in moments of greatest turmoil and change, aren't I?" he asked, kicking at the rocks under his booted feet.

"I suppose you are," she answered, suddenly as somber as he was.

"So...is the answer the same this time as it was then?" he pressed.

She nodded, "I'm afraid so," she answered. "Except..." she trailed off and looked at him, smiling a little, "Except thanks to all of you, this time I have some idea, at least."

"And what is that?" he asked.

"I think..." she paused, unsure of how the words would sound on her lips, "...that I wish to live a...normal life for a while."

He half sighed, half laughed, "That sounds nice," he admitted.

"I'd ask you to..." the words died on her lips at the look of sadness in his eyes and she shook her head, "But no..." she finished instead. "I won't."

"Someday..." he sighed.

She nodded and squinted at the approaching headlights. "Someday," she echoed, offering him one of her rare smiles, full of nothing but warmth. "I owe you more than I could ever repay, Richard," she spoke before hefting her bag onto her shoulder and walking to the waiting taxi. She didn't much like taxis, but she had figured that if she was to lead a normal life, she couldn't very well fly there.

"Raven!" he called and one hand on the door, she turned back to him. "Do you remember the day we met?" he asked.

She nodded. "August 16th," she answered without hesitation.

He grinned. "Then on the ten year anniversary of our first meeting..." he swallowed, "...meet me at the Manor, no matter what happens..." he met her eyes, "Do you promise?" There was a moment when she obviously considered the depth of that promise. '...no matter what happens...' requires more than an off chance, and Raven never made promises lightly. Finally, silently, she nodded. "I'll be waiting."

Without another word, Raven entered the taxi and closed the door on her life as a Titan.

Ten years since that first meeting.

So much had happened and yet here she was, facing the imposing structure of the Manor at the end of the long drive and feeling as if she were no larger than the scarred and wounded girl of 13 she had been, with only the hard shell of her emotionless facade to keep it all inside.

She blinked, and her car was idling in front of the house itself. Driving in this state of mind couldn't be safe, she thought, and shut off the car with a resounding click in the stillness. Steeling her resolve, she emerged from the comforting and familiar confines of her two door coupe and adjusted the fall of the blouse over her skirt, smoothing the wrinkles the skirt had acquired during the long drive from Metropolis and combing fingers through longish purple locks she must have somehow mussed in her worrying during the drive.

She wasn't the child of 13 now, she was a woman. But she would've given anything for the false sense of protection her emotionless shield used to offer her in situations like these. But she had shed the shield her years as a Titan had already cracked and tarnished years ago and felt, for the first time in a very long time, exposed without it.

Before she knew it, she was at the imposing front door and before she had even managed to raise a hand to the doorbell, the door swung open on well-oiled hinges. The weathered, be-speckled, but kind face that greeted her on the other side was as welcome to her as the sudden all consuming fear wasn't.

"Good morning, Miss Raven," Alfred greeted warmly, motioning her inside, "Young Master Dick is expecting you."

And for the first time since she had realized the tenth anniversary of their first meeting was close at hand, Raven actually smiled. "I'm glad to hear it," she answered as she stepped beyond the threshold to her first real haven on Earth.

"You sound surprised," the deep and humored tones she could never mistake came from the shadows next to the stairs.

Raven easily found the brilliant blue of his eyes despite the shadows, "It's been a long time," was the only answer she offered. Whether she meant it as excuse for her doubting if he would keep his promise as she had kept hers or whether she meant it as a greeting, she herself didn't know.

Robin-- no, Nightwing, Richard, really, stepped toward her with the same lithe, casual grace he had always possessed, and his smile was the same cocky half smirk he had offered her on their first meeting all those years ago, "Between us?" he asked, stopping mere inches from her. He took her shoulders in his hands and shook his head, "Time is irrelevant."

She smiled and it made her seem no older than she had been the first time he saw her, "Funny you should say that, Richard," she said all her doubts gone just as they always had been whenever she looked into his eyes, "I had been thinking something just like that all the way here."