This is a long one, I think. I will also warn you guys that there is some Speedy/Raven coming up. What? I love Speedy, I can't help it! Don't worry I'm a loyal Rob/Rae shipper. Things happen as they must, my readers…

Four

Raven went to sleep that night feeling bone-tired but satisfied. She had had a productive day and spent valuable time with Robin, who she considered the smartest Titan and a person to look up to. Starfire was her best friend and Cyborg and Beast Boy were her older and younger brothers respectively, but Robin? He was something special. She just hadn't figured out exactly what that meant.

She had expected to sleep peacefully after the training session, but instead she struggled with one nightmare, tossing restlessly all night.

In the dream she and Robin were on the roof of the tower, standing close together, talking and laughing. Then, Robin leaned in, his lips centimeters from hers, but before they could touch a dark shadow pulled him away and threw him off the tower. Raven moved to save him, but the shadow covered her mouth and restrained her arms. All she could do was watch as the masked leader fell to his death.

A firm rap on her bedroom door woke her from the distressing nightmare. She glanced at the clock on her dresser and groaned. 4:00 A.M. She pulled on her signature cloak and opened the door with a violent surge of her powers.

"What do you think you're doing disturbing me at this hour?" she hissed, not caring who was on the other side.

"Good morning to you too." Robin flashed his bright smile, unruffled by her anger.

Raven's irritation dissipated seeing Robin's carefree expression, kindness visible in his face as always. It brought her back to the nightmare. She wasn't seeing Robin as he was in front of her, but with fear on his handsome features as he was launched from the tower, extending his arms out to her in a final cry for help.

"Raven? Raven, is everything okay?" his voice cut through her reverie and she blinked, seeing his brow furrowed with concern for her behavior.

"Yes. Yes, I'm just tired."

He regarded her skeptically, but didn't press her for the truth he knew she was hiding.

"As your friend I apologize for the early hour. As your leader, I chose this time for a reason."

"What have you planned today?"

"Reflex practice." His mischievous grin was back and Raven thought the Boy Wonder took his little training games way too seriously.

"Care to elaborate?" she stepped out of her room, the door shutting automatically.

"No, but I will tell you that you're up first."

"Why me?"

"I need the first example to be a successful one."

"How are you so sure I'll succeed?"

They'd begun walking to the outdoor course but Robin paused to face the shorter girl.

"The same way I was so sure you'd complete the course yesterday with time to spare and the same way I'm so sure that with you in battle, the Titans will always come out victorious. I trust in you and in your abilities."

"How sweet. You're buttering me up so I don't hate you for making me go first." She gave him fake smile and he broke into laughter.

She grinned at the effect her dry words had on the usually stoic leader of the team. Robin had the tendency to overanalyze and obsess the way he had with Slade. He deserved moments of levity the same way Raven deserved the tender compliments and friendship Robin gave her. They'd both been through so much. Raven had once been emotionless, constantly afraid of releasing Trigon with her laughter or her smiles. She'd lost her mother at a young age and been raised by monks who protected her with reserved emotions, never sharing warmth or love with her. Robin had lost his parents at a tender age, literally watching them fall to their doom. He'd become Batman's protégée but as he matured, he felt stuck as his sidekick. When he left Batman and formed the Titans, he took on the stress of the world and of his teammates. He had a lot of courage and strength and Raven admired these qualities as they'd help her overcome her sinister demons.

"Everyone should be outside already. I wanted to wake you myself and give you fair warning."

"I was the only Titan to receive the honor of a personal Robin wake-up call? I'm touched." She said sarcastically and Robin just chuckled.

"Yes, most would kill for this opportunity. Consider yourself lucky, Raven."

"Please save some modesty and humility for the rest of us."

"You're the only one I can count on for witty banter with just a twinge of insult. What would I do without you?" He teased.

She didn't answer, firstly because they had already reached the outdoor course and secondly, because she felt like giggling like a silly teenage girl at prom and that was embarrassing enough without the addition of causing something valuable to explode.

"Robin, it's so early the sun's still sleeping!" protest Beast Boy with bags under his eyes.

"Yeah, this is insane. We won't make it a week." Speedy grumbled.

"It's unfortunate you feel that way because… you have to do it anyway." Robin shrugged and raised his voice to address all the sleepy Titans. "Today, we're going to test our reflexes. This challenge is an individual one so we will all be going one by one. The computer will analyze our heat signatures to detect our abilities and design a simulation unique to each of us. This means the order doesn't necessarily matter because each simulation adjusts to you. Through random calculation, Raven will be going first."

All eyes fell on the cloaked Titan, who sighed and pushed her hood off to face the computer. It analyzed her small frame before making a beep of acknowledgment. She moved to the center of the empty field, knowing it wouldn't be empty for long.

"How long is the simulation?" Cyborg asked.

"Five minutes." Robin responded.

"What exactly will we be facing?" Bumblebee inquired.

"That's the fun part. We don't know."

"You need to stop throwing that word around, dude." Beast Boy said.

The computer began counting down from 5 and the Titans faced forward to watch Raven's simulation.

She repeated her mantra to herself as the computer counted down, keeping her eyes closed. When the first gun emerged from a rock behind her, her eyes, now white with her power flew open and she whirled, destroying it in one sweep of her hand. The second, third, and fourth guns went out the same way but the fifth gun she imploded, controlling it from the inside out.

The ground shook beneath her and she instantly levitated, flying up above the course to observe the next threat with caution. They were robots, built similar to Slade-bots, with laser guns and heavy armor. They moved fast and began shooting up at her without pause. She put up a shield as she considered her next move. She could emit another energy blast, but that wouldn't guarantee that all the robots would fall. She grinned at her next idea.

Dropping the shield, she pointed a hand downwards, connecting with the earth under the robots and with a grunt of effort created a chasm in the ground, causing most of the robots to fall to the center of the Earth. The ones who didn't fall she swooped down and kicked them back. When she was sure they had all fallen, she pulled the earth back to its normal position. She wiped her brow, knowing that had taken a lot out of her and hoping the practice was almost over. She looked at the clock next to the computer and read that she still had less than three minutes of training left. As she was distracted with the clock reading, she was caught off-guard by a new robot, three times the size of the other ones.

It picked her up from behind, holding her arms uselessly to the sides of her body. She squirmed in its grip, but she didn't have Starfire's alien strength to kick the robot and break its hold. She forced herself to take a deep breath, ignoring the painful squeeze of the robot as it increased its pressure on her body, making her gasp for air.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" she shouted and gave in to the airy feeling of her astral projection leaving her body.

Her astral form, a towering black raven, attacked the robot from behind, entering its mechanism and blowing up its circuits from inside. As the robot fell back, it released Raven, who quickly summoned her astral form back and caught herself in flight before she hit the ground. She levitated in that position, waiting for the next attack on her reflexes. It came from above this time, a seemingly never ending rain of bullets from little robots the size of an apple that flew after her, aiming at her body with scary precision.

Raven formed a black bubble around her to deflect the first wave of bullets and waited until she could count all the little robots as they positioned themselves around her shield to try and wear her down. There were fifteen in all, shooting at her from every side. She could feel the barrier weaken as her body tired from the varied exertions of power. This was the final obstacle, though, and Raven was not a quitter. Summoning strength from within her she pushed out with her powers, pointing her arms and legs to her surroundings as the energy bubble burst and decimated all fifteen mini-robots with its blast. As pieces of metal and circuitry fell to the ground, Raven landed gracefully at the center of the course as the computer announced the completion of the simulation.

There was a moment of silence before the Titans cheered and whistled for the amazing performance.

"I had no idea you could astral project like that." Aqualad said.

"You split the ground open!" Speedy said excitedly. "How did you do that?!" he grabbed her small hands and examined them as if searching for the boundless power they'd displayed.

She had to laugh at that and took her hands back with a slight tug.

"Friend Raven that was a most glorious show!" Starfire clapped.

"Thanks, Star." She grinned, giving the taller girl a high-five.

"I told you you'd succeed." Robin said and she turned to see him unexpectedly close to her.

"Maybe I should listen to you more often." She quipped, keeping a straight face even with his soft lips so close to hers.

It was quite a tempting position, but of course rational person that she was, she stepped back and went over to the safe company of Cyborg and Starfire, leaving Robin staring after her.

The rest of the training went on successfully. All the Titans completed their simulations with only small setbacks, like when some of Starfire's hair caught on fire and when Speedy ran out of arrows so he resorted to using his bow as a deadly weapon. Robin observed the training, writing notes on a pad every now and then. The Titans were skilled in individual training, but they hadn't done as well in teams yesterday.

Aqualad was no team player, Beast Boy was hesitant to speak ideas, Speedy had a tendency to want all the glory, Starfire was a bit too open and distracted in battles, Cyborg sought to prove himself in every battle which could be dangerous at times and Bumblebee was just like Cyborg but with the added pressure of being a female team leader. He realized he had left out an analysis of himself and of Raven. They had been the team to do the best yesterday, but it was possible his judgment was clouded in regards to the dark sorceress. He was getting used to the idea that he liked her more than a respectable teammate or close friend would. Still, he wrote her name down on his pad and scribbled Has lost her control and her temper in battle a few times. Under her name he added his own. Robin- Can be stubborn and impulsive to the point of danger.

His thoughts, as always, flashed back to Slade and the chaos he'd caused for the Titans. Robin had betrayed his friends as Red X and then as Slade's apprentice and then Slade used Terra to hurt the team. As if that weren't enough, Slade returned as Trigon's servant, haunting Raven until she fulfilled the prophecy that brought about the end of the world. And the bastard was still unaccounted for. Robin was just thankful he'd gotten Raven back. When he asked her what he would do without her, he had meant it as a serious question. Every second he spent with her convinced him more and more than he was close to falling in love with her. The question was, how did she feel about him?

"Is there any other deathtrap planned for today or are we free to go?" Speedy asked with a scowl on his face.

"We're finished for today, but I need two Titans to patrol the city tonight. These patrols will be the responsibility of two Titans every night and we'll change up the partners each time to give us all a chance to work with each other. If an enemy was attacking the city, we would all fight but for patrols only two people are necessary. Speedy, you'll start tonight's patrol."

He grumbled something that sounded like spiky haired asshole but nodded, acknowledging Robin's rank over his.

"Does anyone want to patrol with Speedy tonight?" Robin asked the group.

Silence.

"Thanks a lot, guys." Speedy glared.

"Convince someone by tonight, Speedy. That's your mission for today." Robin turned away to enter the tower and probably get started on the next day's training sessions.

Speedy considered asking Aqualad to go with him, but ever since the Atlantian declared his feelings towards Raven he'd changed. Instead of love making him a better man with a new perspective on life, it had made him a cruel person with a fixation on Raven that he hid rather well. Still, Speedy saw through his bullshit. Aqualad wanted her to himself and he put up a calm front to lure Raven to him with his kindness and sculpted features, but in reality he was willing to hurt anyone who got in his way. Frankly, it was frightening.

Speedy tried to tell his own leader about it but Bumblebee waved him off, writing his complaints off as jealousy because they were after the same girl. That wasn't it though.

He's dangerous. If Bumblebee won't listen maybe Robin will.

Speedy wasn't on great terms with the Boy Wonder but they were close friends once. In the early days when the Justice League's core members were training young heroes to follow in their footsteps Dick Grayson and Roy Harper were the chosen ones, little boys with a great responsibility thrust upon them. They'd formed a bond with the other young heroes but Roy remembered a time when Dick didn't always hide behind his mask and when they were as close as brothers. Life and evil took its toll on them and Dick started the revolution that changed the League when he left Batman to pursue his own career. Roy had done the same, never glancing back at Green Arrow, though it caused him great pain to leave the man he saw as his father behind.

Yet, Dick or Robin, as he only allowed himself to be called now, was a good guy and he knew what was best for his teammates. If he informed him about Aqualad, maybe Robin would handle the situation. Plus, if Aqualad was thrown back into the deep seas where he belonged, Speedy's road to Raven would be wide open! Smiling at this pleasant yet naïve thought, Speedy decided to talk to Robin the following day and focus on securing a partner for the patrol that night.

Well, who better than my pretty bird herself? Speedy grinned and began to look for Raven.

Raven was meditating on the roof, breathing in the afternoon breeze and trying to push all ruminations on Robin away. She was about to teleport to the kitchen for a warm cup of oolong tea when she felt the presence behind her. Her violet eyes opened and she waited, reading the emotions of the person walking up to her. There was nothing threatening there but she did discern anticipation, happiness, and love?

"Hello sweetheart. I've been looking for you."

"Speedy." She retained a sigh of exasperation.

"You certainly don't sound excited to see me."

She stood to face him.

"That's because I'm not."

"A guy with less self-confidence would have given up already."

"As would a guy with more intelligence."

"Ouch, angel, that was harsh." He smiled.

"Angel? That's a new one."

He shrugged.

"I think I've overused all other pet names. Next, I think I'll use Italian pet names."

"You know Italian?"

"And Russian. And conversational Lithuanian, but I'm rusty."

"I have no words."

"Have I surprised you, angel?"

"Actually… yes."

"Good, it caught your attention. I came up here to ask you to join me on patrol tonight."

"No, thank you." She walked past him, intending to walk down to the kitchen, when he grabbed her wrist.

"Please. Raven. I'd like to spend some time alone with you. I can prove to you I'm more than just the hot redhead in the yellow boots."

Her lips twitched.

"I don't know anyone who thinks of you that way, but all right."

"Really? You'll come with me?"

"Yes… but Speedy… control yourself."

"I'll be on my best behavior, angel, I promise."

She rolled her eyes at the nickname.

"I have a name, you know."

"And a beautiful one at that."

"Then why don't you use it?"

"Because then I'd be like everyone else who just calls you Raven. This way, I'm unique." He winked.

"Unique? Yes, that's fitting."

"I'm sure you meant it as an insult, but I'll allow it. For you, angel, anything. Meet me here at 7 for the patrol." He flashed her another smile and left her alone again.

H e better not make me regret this.