Disclaimer: If I owned Teen Titans… well… let's just say you'd know. Obviously, I don't own it. So there.
A/N: The last chapter was just something funny. Trust me, with this fan fic, you'll need the comedic relief. Don't say I didn't warn you… many many times.
-Chapter Two-
"Raven is missing!" Beast Boy called out, finally catching up with the group.
This hadn't been the ordinary search and take-down mission for the Titans. It had been too similar to be ordinary. Slade had been spotted down town. Now he was nowhere to be seen. They had split up. They searched abandoned buildings, sewers, rooftops, alleys, and streets. He wasn't anywhere. They had lost him without even finding him. Perhaps he was still dead. Still, that doesn't explain the sighting. SOMEONE saw Slade, someone other then a hallucinating Robin. Was this also a fake or… something else.
If this was a fake, then where was Raven?
"Nonsense, BB. If anyone can find Raven, I can." Cyborg announced, bringing up the tracker on his arm. The resulting bleeps were high pitched and quick.
"Hmmm… that's odd… my scanners say that she's…"
"Right here." Beast Boy pulled Raven's communicator from his pocket. The red gem glittered in the starlight. "I told you, she's missing!"
The Titans looked at each other.
"Well if it IS Slade…" Robin began and Cyborg groaned.
"Dude, Robin, don't even start. Slade is dead. Something is up, but it's not Slade. Get over it."
"It still could be Slade! SOMEONE saw him, Cyborg!"
"Who, Robin? Hmm, tell me that? How do you know that some villain didn't make a false report just to bring us down here?"
"To what, kidnap Raven? Why would anyone kidnap Raven?"
Starfire blinked. "That is simple, friend Robin."
"Oh, is it, then tell me. Why would anyone kidnap Raven?"
Starfire gave him a look of 'how could YOU not know?' before explaining. "Well… Raven is very powerful and her powers are not always under control. If a villain could use her lack of control to his or her advantage then they could have a great destructive weapon."
"Yeah, not to mention her demon blood and all!" Beast Boy added and everyone looked at him. This included Cyborg, though his look was more like 'shut up' then confused. Cyborg had also seen Trigon, but he was going to respect her privacy and not tell. Beast Boy gave a nervous grin. He had forgotten that they didn't know.
"Wild guess?" He suggested and everyone sighed in annoyance.
"Get serious, Beast Boy." Robin scolded and Beast Boy laughed.
"Yeah… serious… gotcha."
"Split up again, everybody. We have to double our search efforts! Find Raven!" Robin commanded before yelling his famous phrase: "Titans, Go!"
Raven's eyes fluttered open. What had happened? Think Raven, think. It had been dark and she was searching. For who? Oh yes, that's right. Slade. She had been hunting Slade. And then what? A hand… a needle… ouch. Raven felt her neck softly. It felt bruised. That was where the needle had been. Her neck. Okay, so far so good. Then what?
After that was this. But what was this?
The walls were padded and white. The door was noticeable only by it's small square window. A padded white room? Wait a minute, what the Hell? She stood shakily and looked down at herself. White. Her outfit was completely white. How had that happened?
It was then that a nurse entered. Her black hair was tied up in a bun just below her nurse's cap. The outfit she was wearing was nothing flashy. Just simple white scrubs and some weird shoes. In her hand was a cup, but of what Raven couldn't see yet. She nodded to some people outside the room who watched the door carefully as if afraid to let the woman go into the room alone.
"Oh, you're awake!" The nurse said as she finally looked at Raven. She smiled brightly.
Raven was thoroughly confused. White room, white clothes, a nurse?
"What's going on here?" Raven asked warily, backing away from the woman as she slowly approached.
"Don't you remember?" The woman asked, stopping in the center of the room as Raven pressed herself into a corner. Raven shook her head and the woman sighed.
"It figures. After the state you've been in, I'm surprised that you're even responding to me."
Raven raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by 'State I've been in'?"
The nurse stepped closer and Raven found that she couldn't bury herself into the padding anymore.
"Oh honey…" The nurse began. "You really don't remember, do you?"
Raven shook her head and the nurse began to explain.
"You see… your friends, the Titans… they brought you here. They said that they had lost you. It had been almost two months before they finally found you. Only…"
"Only…" Raven pressed.
"Only you were blabbering on and on, yelling at things and people that weren't there. You didn't see them, didn't respond to them at all. This is the first time that you've interacted with the real world in a long time, Miss Roth."
That can't be right. The needle and then this… there wasn't anything in between! Raven tried to think of what had happened. What could she not remember?
"No… no. I don't believe you. I was looking for Slade and then I was attacked. Then… then there was this. Nothing else."
The nurse sighed. "Oh my." she rested a hand on Raven's shoulder and Raven tried hard to back away, but she had cornered herself. "Hon, you'll have to talk to the therapist about that. You're going to have to face your memories sooner or later, okay? You can't repress these things forever. You need to remember, okay?"
"I didn't repress anything!" Raven yelled, shoving the nurse off of her since she couldn't back away. "Don't touch me! You're lying! This is all a lie! Where are my friends? Where are the Titans?"
The nurse shook her head.
"It's been a long time, hon. Since Slade returned… well… No, you're not ready to hear this."
"WHERE ARE THEY!" Raven cried again. This time some of the padding in the floor exploded, small pieces of yellow fluff and white fabric flying up into the air. The nurse backed away, startled.
"No one knows, hon. Slade has taken over the city, it's chaos. Some say that Robin is still fighting crime, but no one knows. They haven't been seen in months."
Raven shook her head. This wasn't right! This couldn't be true! It couldn't! She was searching for Slade and then she was attacked. Nothing else happened! It couldn't have!
"Let me out of here." Raven demanded. The nurse looked back to the people at the door who suddenly seemed to be prepared to enter at the first signs of a fight.
"Hun, I can't do that, I'm not authorized. You can talk to the doctor, if you wish."
"No!" Raven screamed and another piece of padding exploded. The people entered the room.
"Get away from me! All of you! I won't believe you, any of you! It can't be true! It can't! I would know! I would! I didn't repress anything!"
The nurse held her hands up in front of her in defense. "Okay, hon. Please, calm down. You're getting a little out of hand."
Raven felt hot tears rising up in her eyes. She was getting out of hand. Her emotions were going insane. She needed to meditate. She needed to sort this all out. She managed to calm herself down, wiping the tears away before they fell.
"Please, leave me." Raven demanded more than asked. The nurse took a calm step forward.
"You need to take your medication, hon."
Raven's head snapped up and she glared at the woman. "Medication? How long have you people been drugging me?"
"Months."
"WHAT? I don't NEED medication! I NEED meditation! I can't have your drugs interfering with my mind! Do you know how dangerous that is?" Raven sank to the floor, her strength failing her.
"You have to take the medication, Miss Roth. Don't make me force you to."
Raven glared up at the woman. She knelt down to Raven's level and offered a cup of capsules. Raven stared down into the cup. She focused on all of the pills at once and a black energy surrounded them. The pills began to pop and bubble until they were no longer recognizable. The nurse dropped the cup.
"Get out of here. Now. Don't make me force you to." She mocked the nurse with her last remark. The nurse glanced up at one of the other people and they went outside to door to a cart and got another cup. The man handed the nurse the cup and she stepped forward with the other man who pulled a needle from his pocket, popping off the safety cap.
"Now just relax, hon." The nurse said. Suddenly desperate Raven used her powers to wrench the needle from the man's had, embedding it somewhere in the white padding before jumping up, soaring to the ceiling and towards the door. Escape should have been easy. It wasn't. Raven hit something that she couldn't see that spanned from one part of the doorframe to the other. She hit the ground with a cry. So much for that bright idea.
"We've been warned in advance of your powers, hon. We've taken the necessary precautions." The nurse explained.
Raven felt the needle, which the guard had obviously recovered from the fluff, press into her neck and she felt her mind begin to panic.
The needle and then this… the needle… and then… and then… Their story couldn't be true. Her friends… she wasn't… insane… no… not… insane… no…
"Where is she?" Beast Boy hollered. Manual search had failed them. Even with Beast Boy's blood hound form. Not a trace of her was found. So, Cyborg decided to alter her medical read-outs to be able to trace her energy. They could only wait now, but the scanner wasn't finding anything.
"It's been hours! This thing should've found her by now, right? So? Where is she!"
Cyborg sighed and shook his head. "Something must have changed her energy read-out."
"Like what?"
Cyborg thought about this a moment and then shrugged. "I don't know. Some sedatives or other mind altering drugs like… I don't know… anti-depressants or something. Anything that can alter her state of mind can alter her energy read-out, since her powers are controlled by her mind."
Beast Boy sat down on the couch. "So she's drugged?" Cyborg shrugged.
"I don't know, Beast Boy."
Starfire turned to Robin with a questioning look. "Robin, what is… drugged?"
Robin sighed. It was going to be a long night.
Raven woke up to find herself in the white room again. The nurse was gone, but the damage in the padding remained. So it hadn't been a dream. She sighed. What was going on here? She crossed her legs and tried to meditate, but whatever the hell they gave made her dizzy as soon as she tried. She plopped back down onto the padded floor and stared at the nearest wall. She couldn't hang on to a thought. It was so hard to just think. How was she supposed to remember anything if the medication just made her mind slip?
"Unless they don't want me to remember." Raven stated a loud, so as to hold on to the thought. It worked. Saying it out loud helped her think about it. Great, so now she'd have to talk to herself AND try to prove that she's not insane.
"They want me to think I'm insane. That's what this is all about. They want me to talk to myself. They want me to forget. They want me to loose my mind."
She sighed again. So, what could she do about it?
Beast Boy had begun to pace again and Robin wouldn't sit down. Cyborg was on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Starfire had fallen sleep on the end of the couch closest to Robin. On occasion Robin would uncross his arms to brush hair out of her eyes.
Beast Boy had suggested that they search for her DNA. Cyborg had had to explain that in order to find her by DNA they would have to DNA test everybody in the town. It they were going to do that, they might as well manually look for her again. So, Beast Boy said they should. They didn't. Here they were, waiting for her energy levels to reach normal. The drugs HAD to wear off sometime, right?
"What if they just keep drugging her? What if she has some kind of permanent energy shift? What if she's… OH! We have to go find her! Please, let's search manually again!"
Robin shook his head. "We can't help her in this condition. We all need sleep. Including you, Beast Boy. We can look again tomorrow."
"How can you even THINK about sleeping? Raven is in danger!"
"And we'll do her no good if we're exhausted. Go to bed, Beast Boy."
"NO!"
"As the leader of the Teen Titans… I order you to go to bed."
Beast Boy grumbled and stormed off, the sound of his door slamming echoing down the halls. Cyborg went to his own room, charging himself noiselessly. Robin carried Starfire to her room before retreating to his own.
Beast Boy opened his window a little crack. Turning into a fly, he flew through the small crack and towards Jump City. The others may not be so worried about Raven, but he was and he was going to find her and bring her home.
((Well? Is Raven insane? Am I merely flashbacking to the scenes with the Titans? Or is this happening at the same time? Who would go through all of those pains just to make Raven think that she is insane? C'mon, tell me what you think!))