AN: Hey everybody next update for this story. This story is probably going to wrap up in a few more chapters. This is kind of adult in theme. Note the rating and respect it everyone. This chapter is in honor of several souls to remain nameless my prayers are with you.

Disclaimer: I don't own them 'nough said

The silence had lain thick for so long Robin was unsure of the time of day, and yet he found he didn't care about it at all. It was as if in that moment of terror such trivial thoughts were nothing more than specks of dust on such a larger and far more beautiful picture frame. He laid there next to her stroking her hair with hands so gentle.

The years of fighting and training had worn his hands into callous things but no amount of time could make their touch that way. He played with her hair as she lay there caught somewhere between living and death. He cherished every millisecond with her like this. It seemed hours or perhaps only minutes when she finally turned to meet his eyes.

A small smile slipped across her features and his heart felt as if had swollen to ten times its usual diameters. Her voice was cracked and he thought for a minute she would be unable to speak but she spoke changing things on him. "I need to show you a few things today, I just do." He nodded dumbly it seemed he was all was at wits end when she came around.

Sucking in deep breaths she snuggled closer to him beginning to open the channels of her mind. She could feel the weights criss-crossing across her soul chained as she was. The pain of the past had once been such a volatile thing that it had to be sealed away lest her very destruction would occur. It took every ounce of strength that had ever inhabited within her body to begin to unshackle her soul.

With trembling hands she let the chains slip away as a cascade of the past rushed forth like a damn breaking free of all its restraints. She stood before the coming flood and she could feel she wasn't alone. For the first time in a very long time she wasn't alone. Raven reached out to Robin before the cascade swept over her creating a link to him.

She could only pray that the link would hold in the face of such tumult. Robin seemed to understand the urgency and held her tighter still in his arms. He could feel Raven in his mind and the sensation was the most natural and comforting thing he'd felt in years. He could feel her trepidation through the link in their minds. The surge came and he knew she was drowning in the past as he was flooded with the images of her past.

A little girl hearing the screams below her room from angry parents as they shredded the silence and comfort of the night. She could taste her fear as she hid from them beneath her covers. She lay so still praying to be unseen to be forgotten. Her name was screamed across the house and her prayers were left unanswered. She rose from her bed to pad down the hallway. She reached the top of the stairs and the screams increased in volume. It felt like they would shatter her ear drums.

She padded down the stairs as fast as she could but it could never be fast enough. An angry barreling from caught hold of her half way down and proceeded to drag her the rest of the way down. A barely six year old Raven was caught between the two screaming giants. They would gesture and point at her and when her response was not adequate a sharp sting would be felt across her face.

The anger in the room continued to grow to such monumental proportions that she was nearly quaking where she stood. She fought not to tremble in front of such livid giant. She had never felt so small in her entire life standing there in the cold kitchen hearing the screams and praying in her tiny nightgown to not be noticed. A question had been asked and in her prayers and fear she had failed to answer. The anger boiled over in one of the giants and she found herself flying through the kitchen into the next room. She could feel the bone snap in her arm that braced the fall into the furniture of the next room.

A dark liquid poured from the side of her head as her tiny body crumpled to the plush carpet of the living room. She could almost laugh at the angry explosions she would face for making such a mess on the floor. There was suddenly more of the dark liquid as it pooled into the strands of her hair she wondered if maybe god would find her and take her away. She said one more silent prayer as she slipped into the darkness.

The scene replayed over the years as he could see as sharply as if he had stood in the silent corner of the room. But one day the scene changed she was a little older. She was lying in her bed still clad in the tiny nightgowns and still praying while she hid beneath the covers. He watched in horror as a silent presence entered the room. She tried to be a sleep but the person had sat on her bed. Then the person was drawing the covers back and was sitting on her. One hand held her in place via a chokehold on her throat while another traveled across her body. The hand touched places that made robin want to scream out in pain and fury. But he couldn't he was merely a part of the past for those moments in time. The hands were done it seemed but another anatomy part was out and yet she lay there so quiet.

He wondered why more than ever until he saw the razor sharp kitchen knife pressed against her bared stomach. Until he heard the deadly words whispered in the dark of the night. He saw when the person was done with her and when they left. She lay there looking so lost in her own mind. She was broken that night nearly beyond repair it seemed.

The years seemed to melt away as they both came back to the present. Raven once again had a vacant look in her eyes as if the knowledge she had imparted to Robin had cost more than she could bear. He held her closely and fought not to cry, fought not to find a time machine and set things right, to find a spell to set things right, to find the person who did this to her and unleash a personal hell on them.

He willed the rest of the team to have found some bizarre reason to stay out all night if possible. He prayed a silent prayer to a god he pondered the existence of especially today. He laid there with her in the darkness of her room holding her. He was her last buoy in the gale that she was drowning in.

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