Chapter 3

The Titans had stared blankly at Robin for long, tense minutes after he had finished speaking. What could they say? Raven was alive . . . how were they supposed to respond to that? Even Beast Boy had no witty response, sitting on the couch with disbelief and shock in his eyes, his mouth still wide open.

Robin had taken the rest of the night and most of the following day to wander lost in thought, the paper Terra had given him clutched tightly in his hand. He spent the day processing what Terra had told him, coming up with questions that he should have asked, and formulating what he would say to the rest of the Titans. When he returned to the tower that evening the expression on his face stopped any chastising and questions from coming his way about his abrupt disappearance. Now they all understood that haunted look.

The testimony of the masked villain that they had intercepted confirmed part of Robin's crazed story: There were two mysterious girls to show up in that alley; one cloaked and the other mostly hidden in shadows. If there was any chance that Raven and Terra had really been there . . . the Titans had to take faith in Robin's word.

Robin had asked if they would come with him to see Raven and convince her to stay and take a stand against Nightwing. His shoulder still ached from the force that Starfire had used to rush him to the T-car. Not even Cyborg's cybernetics could hide the anticipation written on his face.

They had no difficulty in finding the place where Terra was to meet them. It was easily the busiest building on the whole city block. It was crowded, as the man at the door said was common with the band playing that night, but it seemed that Terra had anticipated that for there was a table reserved for the Titans already. They sat amid the crowd, sitting at a tiny table on the raised portion of the floor, the dance floor on a lower level right on the opposite side of the railing beside their table. Robin looked about the smoky, dimly lit room and scanned crowd at the bar and briefly glanced at the dance floor for a sign of Raven, although the dance floor was probably the last place that he expected to see her.

Robin would have liked the band onstage if he had taken the time to listen to them, but he, as well as the other Titans, was so fidgety knowing that, at any moment, he would once again be face to face with Raven.

His eyes flitted to the clock on the wall by the bar top. Nine thirty, which meant it was closer to nine fifteen. Where the hell was Terra?

His frustration grew with every passing minute, as did his fear that he had imagined the whole thing and that there was no hope of ever seeing Raven again. He took quick glances at the other Titans, wondering if they thought he had lost his mind. He couldn't have made up the scene in the alley and everything that followed. . . could he? His anxiety continued to grow until he felt a hand upon his shoulder as he scrutinized the crowd for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

He turned to find Terra standing behind his chair, nervously chewing her lower lip again as she looked around the crowd, seemingly nervous of finding someone there that she didn't wish to see.

"Where have you been?" Robin demanded, turning his chair so he could more easily see her. The Titans could only stare in shock at a person who, to their latest knowledge, should still be encased in stone. "You said nine. Where's Raven?"

Surprising Robin, Terra began to laugh.

"What is so funny?" Robin asked, beginning to get angry at her lack of seriousness in this situation.

"Where's Raven?" Terra repeated, her laughter beginning to subside as she realized he had honestly not seen her. "You're serious?"

She laid her hands on the sides of his head and turned it toward the stage before pointing. There amid the crowd on the dance floor was Raven. The crowd had taken a step away from her as she danced, her body fluid and graceful and her movements entrancing.

Robin couldn't believe his eyes. Cloaked just as she had always been in years past – only in black this time instead of blue – was Raven, her intense eyes still visible through the shadows of her hood and the body of her cloak thrown over her shoulders instead of covering her as he remembered. She now wore a flowing black skirt with slits on both sides well past mid-thigh, but the boots were the same as always, ankle high and sensibly heeled. The rest of the Titans froze, unable to fully comprehend the sight before them. Raven . . . their Raven was alive, but there among the crowd, dancing with her eyes now closed, emotions obvious on her face as she made the music seem alive in her motions. In such close proximity to all those people and yet her powers seemed to remain in control and contained within her, despite the fierce expressions that crossed her face in reaction to the lyrics. It was so unlike the restrained Raven they all remembered. Whatever she was feeling she was showing.

They each longed to share that with her. They each longed to share anything with her again.

"She learned to harness her power," explained Terra, taking a seat at their little table. "Mostly. Sometime between when the team broke up, about when I left, and when we got together to flee our world she found a way to accept the various emotion-selves within her and once they stopped conflicting within her she found she could use them, guide them. She can use the emotions of those around her to help recharge her, in a way, and channel it. What used to be her weakness is now her strength. She comes here to let out her hurt in a physical way. It helps with the pain. Music has given her an outlet for her anguish and I believe that the music is what's kept Raven sane all this time. She always manages to find the best places. The guys have always been impressed."

The Titans had been so focused on Raven that they hadn't pain any heed to the two men standing on either side of her leaning against the stage. At first Robin had thought they were bouncers from the club, but once a bold and very drunk man came up behind Raven and grabbed her hips while she danced they both grabbed and arm and wrenched it behind him. One of them, a redhead, leaned in to whisper in the man's ear and once they let go of his arms he stumbled back, shaking and took off through the crowd. It was then that Robin recognized Speedy and Aqualad. Although the same age and looking remarkably identical to the Aqualad and Speedy that they knew, these two were darker, shadowed versions of the Titans that they knew so well. It seemed that they, too, had lived through unthinkable torment. The hard set to their eyes mirrored the steel inside that had been forged in their adversity.

Raven's eyes scanned the crowd as she danced, making a connection with others dancing in the audience, as if drawing a little power from each person. Her eyes finally moved beyond the dancers to the tables on the upper level and fell on the Titans' table. She faltered in her steps as she realized who they were, the shock of seeing them all hitting her hard. Clearly this was the last thing that she expected.

She quickly recovered, but stood frozen on the dance floor as she made eye contact with Robin. She finally got her bearings as the song ended and Speedy laid a hand on her shoulder. She started at the contact and rushed off dance floor, to the confused murmur of the crowd, desperate to attempt to flee the situation before she had to face it. She was intercepted by her current bodyguards before she could make it vary far.

Robin turned to find that Terra had left her seat and was making her way to Raven through the crowd. She reached the left edge of the dance floor where Speedy had his arm around Raven to support her as she threatened to sink to the floor. Terra leaned close and whispered to Raven, laying a hand upon her back in a comforting gesture, hoping to calm Raven down. To ground her.

Raven lifted her head and shouted heated words at Terra that the Titans couldn't hear over the din of the crowd on the dance floor as the band began to play their next song. Raven shrugged off Speedy's arm and shouted her defiance at all three of them before trying her best to slip out of the back door to the building. Speedy grabbed her by the shoulders, turned her toward him and lowered his head to hers. He pressed his forehead against hers and after moments of heated whispers Raven's shoulders finally slumped into submission. Speedy took her into his arms and held her for a few moments, laying his head on hers before Raven pulled out of his grasp.

Raven heaved a sigh and looked up in the direction of the Titans' table. Her eyes locked onto Robin's again and she brushed away the tear that slid down her chin. She began to make her way over to their table, her companions in tow behind her.

The crowd parted for her as she made her way back through the dance floor. People approached her that she brushed aside. Apparently she'd been here before and was well known.

Robin's heart began to drum in anticipation as she approached. What was he going to say to her? A look at the other Titans told him that they had no idea what to do, either. All of this was happening so suddenly . . .

Raven finally ascended the stairs to the raised floor and reached their table. She stood before them, her friends, fighting at the agony that fiercely clutched her heart in its burning grasp.

What could she say to them? How could she expect them to understand?

"Raven," Starfire began, the first to find the voice to speak. "Truly it is you?"

Unexpected tears sprang to Raven's eyes as her gaze fell upon Starfire. It took several moments for Raven to blink away her tears and to compose herself enough to answer without a shaky voice.

"Yeah. Yeah, it's me, Starfire."

The sound of her voice, low and throaty, was familiar and yet so different to the Titans. Her voice held more fluidity, more of a soft velvety quality than it had before. She had always been rather soft spoken, but now her voice seemed as haunted as the rest of her.

Things had most certainly changed in the empathic Titan.

No one knew what to say next. What could they say? The tension grew thick and even Beast Boy was at a shortage of smart-assed comments.

Everyone looked at Starfire as she sniffled loudly. She lifted her head and flashed a brilliant smile. Leaping out of her chair, and nearly knocking over the table in the process, she crushed Raven to her and hugged her as if she were afraid to let go.

"Oh, my friend!" she exclaimed as Raven returned her hug fiercely, seemingly using her as an anchor, afraid that if she let go Starfire would disappear.

Robin raised an eyebrow at that observation. She had changed.

Beast Boy was the next to pounce on Raven, causing her to stagger back a few steps to regain her balance under Beast Boy's weight. Cyborg stepped up beside them and lifted them both off the ground in his embrace.

As Cyborg set them both on their feet Robin saw the most amazing sight that he had seen in a long, long time: Raven with a true smile lighting her face. A smile he had only ever seen in private.

Many hardships she had faced in her world and they left their marks on her. She was different than the Raven they remembered, that was true, but perhaps that allowed for some joy in her as well as the obvious sorrow.

Finally Raven's eyes met Robin's through his mask. The last days before Raven's death suddenly flooded through his mind, bringing up the joy that they had shared and then the pain of loss that he had been trying so hard to suppress. They had finally gotten close, he had finally had her, and he had lost her. And now here she stood before him once more.

"Raven."

He reached out for her and felt his heart sting as she recoiled from him, her eyes suddenly filled with panic and the black aura of her soul-self flashing around her hands for the briefest instant in reactionary defense.

She closed her eyes and hot tears spilled freely down her cheeks, something that he had never seen before either. She struggled to swallow and finally opened her eyes again.

"I'm so sorry, Robin," she whispered.

Changed indeed.

O • O • O • O

Raven stepped toward Robin and they stood facing each other awkwardly after her initial reaction. Surprising him, Raven threw her arms around Robin. He felt her sigh as he returned her embrace tightly, running his hands up and down her back, as if trying to make sure she was really there, as he felt her shoulders racking with sobs. Never had he seen Raven this open, this free with her emotions.

It took several moments for Raven to calm down and pull away from Robin's embrace.

"I'm sorry," she began. "This is just . . . a little much. I wasn't expecting to do this tonight . . ."

Her hands dropped to her sides as she looked around her sighed, listening to the music of the band onstage.

"Maybe this isn't the place to talk about this," she muttered, looking down to the floor. "We should go-"

Before she was able to finish her sentence a loud explosion from onstage rocked the building's foundation and threw many unsuspecting people to the floor, knocking Raven and Beast Boy over the railing and onto the dance floor below. Beast Boy's head hit the ground hard and he blacked out momentarily before opening his eyes and blankly blinking the stars from his eyes.

Looking up from her position on the floor, Raven attempted to look through the panicked crowd to see what had happened on stage. When she got a clear view of the stage her body grew cold with dread.

Not yet, she thought as her blood ran with ice. Not yet. Not here.

Standing onstage, with a cocky smirk upon his face, was Nightwing. The stage lights shone upon him and made his dark hair appear almost blue. The smoke from the ruined sound equipment swirled around him as he placed an electro disk back into his belt, seeing that he had done enough to have the full attention of everyone still conscious. A member of the band that had been playing groaned and rolled over. Nightwing looked down at him and kicked the man so he rolled off the stage.

Robin stared, slack-jawed at this dark version of himself. If any of the others had doubts of Terra's story, they were surely putting those doubts to rest now. He looked just like Robin with longer hair, and yet somehow completely different. There was a darkness and a danger that was obvious in his mask-less stare.

"Sorry to interrupt all of the fun," Nightwing started with a calm, liquid voice, resting his elbow on a smoking speaker, "but I'm looking for an evasive little vixen with an intoxicating voice. Maybe one of you could help me out."

He hopped off the stage and scanned the crowd as he passed by cowering bystanders, some huddled on the floor where they had fallen during the explosion.

"I know you're here, Raven," he said in a low, dangerous tone, making his way through the frightened crowd, his voice harder than it had been on stage. "Why don't you spare all these people the torments you know I'll inflict on them and come to me?"

He bent down and lifted a woman by the throat. She gasped for air as Nightwing's grip tightened on her windpipe. A man approached to help her but his face was swiftly slashed by a dagger that suddenly appeared in Nightwing's hand. Any others coming forward suddenly backed up as the man rolled on the ground, screaming.

"My patience grows thin, dear Raven. Come to me. Now!"

He looked down at the woman in his grasp as he tightened his grip once more, the woman no longer able to take in air.

"Or she dies!"

"No!" Raven commanded, finally managing to stand after untangling herself from Beast Boy, who had been sprawled on top of her recovering from his head injury.

"Ah." Nightwing dropped the woman without a second thought and turned to the sound of Raven's shout. "There you are, Love."

"You lost the right to call me that long ago," she replied quickly.

Nightwing seemed unfazed by what Raven had to say and extended a hand towards her.

"You've made me chase you long enough, Pet. Come home." Nightwing was stern with his demand.

"And where is home since you helped Noctis to destroy our world?" Raven spat, bitterness creeping into her voice.

"I can give you any home you wish. We can take any realm and make it ours. Anything that you want."

Raven faltered as the look in Nightwing's eyes changed from cold detachment to smoldering desire, need, desperation. Robin suddenly understood the motivation behind Nightwing's relentless pursuit of Raven. He wasn't after revenge. He wasn't only on his master's bidding.

He loves her.

In some twisted way and through the darkness now surrounding him Nightwing still loved her as Robin had loved her. He wouldn't allow for her to sacrifice herself because he refused to lose her. Now he was relying on force to keep her. But Nightwing had forgotten something. He had already lost Raven by his own selfishness. He had lost her before he turned to darkness. Raven had found her way back to Robin.

Robin did not intend to lose her again.

Raven made her way over to Nightwing. As Terra and Speedy ran to stop her, Nightwing threw out a hand and a black aura, much like Raven's blocked their path. Raven sent a panicked look to her friends before her face grew cold and she turned and stood before Nightwing in full confidence, looking up into his dark eyes.

"I want our world back," Raven whispered, her eyes pleading with Nightwing's for some show of sanity. "I want Robin back."

"Our world is gone, Raven, and so is the Robin you knew. The so-called heroes of our world turned to a madman as an ally. They put the world into more jeopardy on the slight chance that it could help us. They were all fools, I see that now. They were blind and they blinded you to my true intent; to Noctis' true intent. I've explained this all before, dear Raven. The Titans stood in the way of a world remade. I merely eliminated what stood between us."

"Then why is our world in the shadow of oblivion? Why did this remade world of yours not work? Why did you, yourself, join with the evil of Noctis?!"

Raven's soul-self crackled around her in the familiar black aura. The Titans couldn't recall seeing her release her emotions so much. She had always preached of the dangers of such feelings. Now, it seemed, she wielded them formidably.

Her defenses suddenly lowered as Nightwing reached out to cup her cheek. He stroked her neck with his fingers and her back arched slightly from the electricity that his touch shot through her. She shook her head and tried to take a step back but he stepped forward with her and leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"Our world is no longer because it was full of corruption. Noctis sought to destroy the wicked and bring the world back to balance. It would have eventually been utopia." He shifted slightly and inhaled, breathing in the scent of her hair. "It can still be utopia. You can help me remake it. You can make it in any way you see fit. Come home."

His voice sent shivers down her spine that turned to frost as he laid a kiss on her neck just below her ear. She felt his tongue trail from where he kissed her neck up to her ear and she shuddered, from desire or revulsion she could no longer be sure.

She shoved him suddenly with a violence that surprised him and she took several steps back, not stopping until she was far from him.

"After all that we fought to protect . . . you think we deserved this? You believed Noctis' lies of magnanimity? You are the one who has been blinded. He has corrupted you. You don't have to do this."

"Enough!" Nightwing's cry echoed off the walls, all tenderness lost from his voice. "I'm tired of arguing in circles with you! If I can't convince you to follow down my path then I'll have to drag you behind me until you see the truth!"

With that Nightwing dove for her, shoving aside the terrified people cowering beside his path and losing concentration on the shield aura he had placed in front of her friends. Raven backed away from him as he lunged for her and loud explosion erupted in front of him before he could reach her.

Waving away the smoke, Nightwing squinted to see what had gotten in his way. Approaching him, taking Raven and placing themselves between her and Nightwing, were the Teen Titans.

"You won't touch her," Robin hissed as he stared down his counterpart.

Starfire's hands glowed green as she held her power of starbolts ready. "You will leave our friend alone," she cried, her clarion voice carrying through the room.

"Titans," Nightwing scoffed, recognition crossing his face as he noticed them for the first time. "You think you can keep her? You think you can protect her? She belongs to me!" he growled, rising to his full height.

"She belongs to no one but herself," Beast Boy growled, still slightly woozy but not letting that deter him from transforming into a bear and holding out a wickedly sharp clawed paw which flexed with anticipation.

"So why don't you just leave her alone?" Cyborg added, charging the sonic cannon that he held out, pointed at Nightwing's chest.

"You insist on tormenting her, but your end is coming, Nightwing," Terra threatened, the ground at Nightwing's feet already starting to crack from Terra's power as her hands glowed yellow.

"We end this now," cried Speedy, cocking an arrow.

"And it won't go your way," Aqualad growled, pulling liquid from glasses all around the room and freezing them to icicles pointed at Nightwing.

Before either Nightwing or the Titans could react, a black aura appeared around him and pulled him into the ground where he vanished. The Titans turned to Raven and found her fallen to her knees, looking thoroughly exhausted.

"He'll be back," Raven whispered as Beast Boy and Robin lifted her to her feet. "I sent him away, far away, but it cost me much of my power, but he'll find his way back. You can't fight him yet. He's too strong and . . . the others know." She indicated the others from her world who were recalling their powers or putting away weapons. "And they know better than to confront him," she growled as she glared at them. She turned back to the Titans. "We must talk first. I have much to warn you about Nightwing."

At those last words Raven lost consciousness slumping in Beast Boy's embrace.

Speedy scooped her into his arms and faced the Titans. He looked to Robin for instructions on what to do now.

"Let's take her back to the Tower," Robin suggested. "Let's take her home."