So our two favourite bird characters are now in the Tamaranean capital. Our dear Nightwing is in for some surprises regarding Raven and some secrets she's been keeping not only from him but from everyone. You must read to find out what ;P

I'll stop the whole world, I'll stop the whole world
From turning into a monster and eating us alive
Don't you ever wonder how we survived?
Now that you're gone, the world is ours.

~Monster, Paramore

Monster
Chapter 7

Raven looked around, her head turning left and right. It was clear to Nightwing that she was looking for something, though he knew that made no sense. The both of them knew only one person on the entire planet of Tamaran, and they had already met with that one person – Galfore, the emperor of Tamaran and once Starfire's nanny.

"Raven, are you looking for something?" he asked, hiking the bag of clothing Galfore had given him further up his shoulder.

Raven started to turn to him to answer, but her eyes caught something and they widened, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. "Yes," she told him, and she dropped her bag and left it there, walking towards a tall Tamaranean man who was smirking at her.

"Ryand'r," she greeted him, her hands on her hips, her cloak hanging in folds, creasing where her elbows stuck out.

The young man wiped a strand of hair from his face and grinned down at Raven. "Raven. It's been years."

He opened his arms to her then and she hugged him tightly. Nightwing observed this with some measure of emotion, wondering where Raven knew this charming man from, how she had met him, and why she was familiar enough with him to let him hug her. Clearly she had neglected to tell him something, though he wasn't sure exactly what that was. He suspected that Raven had been to Tamaran before the Titans had come for Starfire's almost wedding, but he wasn't entirely sure how that fit into the timeline of things.

They were talking to each other in hushed tones, now, and, picking up Raven's fallen bag, Nightwing walked over to them and interrupted their conversation. "Hey, Raven, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" he asked amiably, handing her her bag.

She took it from him and motioned to the other man. "Nightwing, this is Darkfire, or Ryand'r, Kori's younger brother. We've been friends for years."

Nightwing looked Ryand'r up and down, sizing him up. He was sturdy, built like a male version of his older sister. He was muscled and dangerous looking with thick and vibrant red hair framing a rather handsome face. Nightwing stuck his hand out and Ryand'r shook it, the younger smiling at Nightwing as he nearly crushed the former Boy Wonder's fingers in the action.

Way to assert yourself, Nightwing thought. Apparently Tamaranean customs, at least regarding males, weren't as different as Starfire made them seem.

Raven seemed to notice and rolled her eyes at what was, to her, a childish action. "Oh stop it, you two. Be friends without constantly having to size each other up." She paused and looked pointedly at Nightwing. "I'm going to go change out of this and, Azar help me, into some more traditional Tamaranean clothes. You should do the same."

She turned gracefully on her heel and walked away without another word. Nightwing looked at Ryand'r and shrugged. In a similar fashion to Raven, he said nothing as he walked off, leaving Ryand'r to ponder over the return of his old friend to Tamaran and what exactly she had meant by bringing such an arrogant man-child with her.

XXX

If there was one thing Raven loved about Tamaran, it was the baths.

On Azarath, the best bath to be had was in a little copper wash basin that servants brought round if it was asked for. Of course, there was always the river, but Raven had always disliked the idea of bathing in water that was full of parasites and bacteria, particularly since her goal was to get clean. But on Tamaran, they had bathtubs the size of swimming pools and no less deep. She had filled hers with a lavender scented soap that had bubbled the entire tub, an unexpected bonus. Raven was sitting back and relaxing, waiting for news from Galfore as to where exactly she would be staying. And as nice as the public bath was, her own private one, she knew, would be that much better.

Raven knew that she probably shouldn't even be indulging in a bath. She knew Richard had questions. She had sensed them floating around in his mind as Ryand'r had hugged her, and a spike of some emotion she had never felt in him before and wasn't familiar with. She meant to talk to him about recent events – everything had happened so quickly that she hadn't had a chance to even convey her apologies for taking him so roughly out of his home, and with no warning.

And, of course, apart from all the explaining she had to give to Richard, the both of them needed to seriously up their training. Raven was fairly sure that she would be relatively safe on Tamaran; they were, after all, fighters, warriors, unlike the people of Azarath who would watch their planet be destroyed before even thinking of lifting a finger to defend themselves. Still, she knew that she couldn't rely on the strength of others to protect her. She knew that she had to be able to defend herself, both with her powers and in hand-to-hand, if it came to that. She was familiar with the Cult of Trigon, and she was well aware of the fact that some of their members had the ability to eliminate supernatural abilities from their adversaries.

Sinking further into her bath, Raven made a mental note to mention this to Richard the next time she saw him. Apologies could wait, no matter how warranted they were. This was their lives at stake, and she needed to make sure that he knew it.

She sighed loudly. She was used to things changing at the drop of a hat in her life – that sort of thing happened all the time. But she had never felt so lost, caught up in a whirlwind that she didn't understand. Yes, things had changed before, and changed drastically. But there was something about this particular change of events, just as fast an alteration, if not faster, that had her head spinning out of control. She had been alone, worked alone with Richard before. That had been the way of things before the rest of the Titans had come along. It had been just the two of them, rooming together and fighting crime for months before Cyborg had come along, and subsequently Beast Boy and Starfire.

Still, she had felt the subtle shift in their relationship the very second she had seen him standing next to her mother in the throne room. He had stood proud and tall, nothing out of the ordinary for Batman's one-time protégé, and yet she had felt something change. He had not smiled at her, even when she had joked sarcastically with him. He was not longer angry with her, she knew, but there was something different about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on, and it wasn't his differently shaped body that was the problem. He had obviously done a fair amount of growing up in the short time she had been away, which she thought a bit odd. Surely she had not caused such a drastic change. True, they were best friends, closer, perhaps, than any of the other Titans combined, but she still couldn't imagine that he had changed due to her.

Raven couldn't help but wonder how things were going to change between them. She had thought him rather distant since they had seen each other. She thought that this was perhaps explainable; he had just been thrust through at least two different star systems and not a few dimensions in under an hour. It made sense, at least on a baser level, for him to be distant, taking in the sights of a planet he had not had the opportunity to enjoy before.

It would have all fallen together for Raven if it had been anyone but Richard. He took things in stride and was never as quiet about things as he had been in the few minutes she had been with him. They had joked briefly about her new suit, but he had been serious with her both before and after. She thought perhaps something was bothering him, but then realized that she would have felt it if that were true. Being an empath was often a burden, but it was also sometimes a blessing. Robin had always been terrible at masking his emotions, and Raven thought that Nightwing probably wasn't much better.

What scared her, though, was that something was rubbing him the wrong way and he just didn't realise it yet. Raven was walking on eggshells with Richard, there was no denying it. She was worried that she would say something about Kori, especially now that they were on Tamaran, that would upset him, and he would go off on her. Only, this time she couldn't leave, and neither could he, and Raven knew that she needed to speak with Richard about everything that had happened before it happened again.

"Hey, Rae, Galfore told me to come up and tell you…"

Raven whirled around to see Richard, still in his Nightwing uniform despite her instructions to change. She didn't know what to do and she saw his eyes widened at the sight of her naked, something the bubbles in the large bath did almost nothing to conceal. Nightwing quickly turned around, his cheeks red with embarrassment.

"Grayson," Raven hissed, quickly jumping from the bath and grabbing her towel, wrapping it as modestly as she could around her body. "What in Azar's name are you doing in here?"

She saw him run his hand through his hair – loose and no longer spiked, another change that had occurred in her absence. "Sorry, Rae, I didn't mean to barge in on your bath, but Galfore told me to come tell you that there's going to be a council meeting and he wants both of us there."

She sighed, trying to expel her annoyance along with her breath. "You can turn around, Richard. I'm at least clad now."

He turned and Raven noted the sheepish look on his face with something akin to satisfaction. "Sorry," he said again, and she waved her hand in dismissal. "When you told me that the baths were like swimming pools, I thought you would be wearing a bathing suit or something."

She rolled her eyes and ran her hand through her own wet hair. "That's ridiculous and doesn't make any sense, but you're forgiven anyway. Just knock next time. I don't exactly like people seeing me naked."

He nodded solemnly. "Right. Anyway, Council chambers in ten, Galfore says. Do you want me to wait outside while you change?"

Raven almost considered telling him no, but she wanted to keep him in her sights as often as possible, hoping to keep him out of trouble, and she bit back her negative reply. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Just try and stay out of sight until you change, okay? Most of Tamaran doesn't know we're here, and we need to keep it that way if we want to keep out of the notice of the cult. You never know where they're lurking."

He nodded and walked out without another word, leaving Raven to wonder what she was going to do with this new Richard, and how she was going to handle the once ever-hopeful Boy Wonder, now too similar to her for comfort.

XXX

Robin was surprised when Raven walked out of the bath dressed in very Grecian attire. She was dressed in white, her top flowing, the back of it touching the bend of her knee, the front cut well above her navel with no sleeves. She was wearing cropped shorts of the same material and little Gladiator sandals on her feet. She had her dark, damp hair loose about her shoulders and a hand on her hip.

"Wow, Rae, you look good," he complimented her, and she gave him a small smile.

"Thanks, Blunder Boy. But fear not, you'll soon get a similar outfit." She looked him up and down, the expression on her face a definitive smirk. "Though I think you'll probably have to forego a shirt. Pity, no?"

She was baiting him and he knew it. "Yes, I'm sure it's just such a pity. People are going to think I'm a man-slut."

Raven chuckled. "They will not. You forget that people on Tamaran absorb the sunlight and it helps command their powers. Why do you think everyone has 'fire' at the end of their English names?"

"Okay, you make a fair point," he conceded. "But I still don't like the idea of walking around in booty-shorts and no shirt. People will stare."

"People are going to think it's perfectly normal because it is. I don't see what you're complaining about anyway. It's not really going to show much more that what you're wearing now. Less, actually, since it won't be clinging to your every muscle."

"Yes, but I'll be showing skin, something this," he motioned to his uniform "doesn't do."

Raven smirked. "What, feeling self-conscious?" she teased.

He glared at her. "Oh, har har, I'm laughing so hard." He rolled his eyes and then motioned down the hall. "We need to get to that council meeting, come on."

He tugged on her arm, pulling her along after him, and she followed, thinking that he had become very like her, indeed.

XXX

"The only thing I got out of that was lodgings," Nightwing complained.

Raven ran her hand through her still slightly damp hair. "Yeah, no kidding. You'd think in a place this size that they would have given us our own rooms. I'm honestly surprised they didn't."

Galfore had brought Raven and Nightwing to the council to discuss what was going to be done with them, but the only thing that had been resolved was where they were going to stay. Galfore had decided that the two would share a room, and though Raven didn't understand why, she was at least partially thankful for it. True, she wouldn't be getting as much privacy, but it was Nightwing, and despite his recent changes in personality, Raven was still very close to him. She had already reasoned out in her mind why it was a good idea to keep him nearby. He was, after all, only a human, even if he was a particularly strong, well trained human. He was normally the one protecting her, but that was when they were in a place where normal people didn't have the ability to blow holes through walls with their eyes. And, so, on that level, Raven was glad she was rooming with Richard.

On another level, not so much.

They arrived at their room, a huge, spacious thing with a fantastic view of the lake below, and though it was a lovely room, Raven found one very large flaw with it – it wasn't divided to accommodate for privacy and, though the bathroom was large, there was only one.

And then there was the bed.

It was round and huge, much like Starfire's bed at the Tower, though much larger and much less pink. And, huge as it was, there was only the one, and Raven had seen Robin sleep. He was an active sleeper, and she knew that he was going to end up on her side of the bed no matter how much space there was between them to begin with. Raven sighed and dumped her bag on the ground, seriously wishing that Starfire had never broken up with Richard. Raven had a feeling that if she hadn't, none of them would be in the mess they were presently in.

"If you so much as touch me in my sleep, Dick, I am going to dismember you slowly and painfully," Raven informed him, her voice deadpan and her expression serious.

Nightwing shrugged. "I can't help it if I'm an active sleeper, Raven. I always have been. But if you're that worried about it, why don't you just go and ask if you can have another bed brought in?"

Raven surveyed the room for a long moment, doing math in her head and calculating whether or not another bed would even fit in the room. "I think I might. But first, you and I need to sit down and have a conversation. We've been pushed very suddenly into something after not seeing each other, not to mention after having a huge fight. I think we have some things we need to hash out."

She sat down on the bed, legs folded Indian-style, and patted the mattress next to her. Sighing, Nightwing jumped into the bed and landed next to Raven with a dull thump. Raven rolled his eyes and muttered "Show off" under her breath and push Nightwing away.

"Take me seriously, won't you?" she asked, a strand of black hair dropping into her face.

Noticing, Nightwing's hand quickly darted out and ticked it back in place behind Raven's ear.

"Thank you," she said. "But we need to get down to business. Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

She could see his eyes widen behind the mask and felt his emotions spike. He looked at her like a startled deer, eyes wide and frozen as if he couldn't move. She eyed him like she was going to pry if he didn't answer, and he realized this. He propped his head up on his hand, elbow digging into the mattress, and met Raven's eyes, tit-for-tat.

"Nothing's wrong with me," he claimed, and Raven shook her head.

"Don't lie to me, Dick. Not only am I an empath, but I know you better than you think I do. That makes it very hard for you to lie to me, and I know that's what you're doing now. So stop it."

He sighed and looked down at the mattress, and Raven had the odd maternal urge to gather him up in her arms and coo endearments and reassurances at him. As it were, she took his hand and squeezed it. "I know that you maybe don't want to talk about what happened or why, but I need to hear it and you need to say it. You said a lot of nasty things to me, and I just ignored them when I should have tried to help you."

Nightwing smiled up at her, and it touched his eyes. It was the first time since he had shown up on Azarath that she had truly seen him smile. "You didn't try to help me? You've got to be kidding me, Raven. You were the only one who ever tried to talk some sense into me after Kori dumped me. So honestly, I'm sorry. I was a bastard and I shouldn't have treated you that way. Best friends?"

Raven laughed. "Yes. We should get best friend rings." She paused, letting her sarcasm take the full effect. "Azar, you're so corny sometimes."

Nightwing chuckled kindly. "Yeah, well, someone has to be, I reckon. Otherwise, we'd be a pair of stoic, sarcastic outcasts, and then where would we be?"

"Social recluses, obviously," Raven answered. "Anyway, you didn't answer my question. As a matter of fact, you keep dancing around it. You just established that we're best friends, so talk to me. You know I'll listen and you know I won't judge you."

Nightwing sighed again, something Raven worried was becoming a permanent gesture of expressing his irritation. "Look, Rae, I wouldn't expect you to understand. But I just don't feel like I belong anymore. I feel like the team doesn't need me, like Kori doesn't need me and I feel like I'm not good enough for anyone anymore. That was the entire reason that I left Batman when I did. I should have just gone solo."

Raven put her hand on his shoulder, something she knew his mother used to do when he was upset. "You're not inadequate, Richard. You may not be the kind of boyfriend material Kori needs and you may not be cut out for running with Batman, but you're good enough for me. You've always been there for me and I've trusted you when I trusted no one else. And think of it this way; if you had gone solo, you wouldn't be alive anymore."

He looked at her like he was crazy. "Okay, everything you said before that I guess makes sense. But if I'd gone solo I'd be dead? How does that make any sense? Are you implying that I would have gotten myself killed?"

"Hardly" Raven replied as she flipped more hair out of her face. "I'm saying that if you hadn't been around when I became the Portal then you wouldn't have been there when I needed you the most and the entire world would be completely gone."

"Oh. That makes more sense."

Raven nodded and leaned back on her hands. "I try to do that sometimes."

There was a long silence, and Raven didn't know what to say. Nightwing had just come to her with all of his problems, even if she'd had to do a bit of hedging. And she couldn't argue that he shouldn't feel unwanted. Kori breaking up with him had really done a number on him, and Raven knew that, as a friend, she couldn't really do anything but be there for him and tell him that everything was going to be alright. Under the circumstances, it wasn't exactly a promise she could make.

She turned to say something more to him, but was surprised to see that he was asleep, his mouth slightly open, his legs dangling off of the side of the bed. Raven smiled and proceeded to take off his boots, gloves and mask so that he would be more comfortable. She dragged him further up the bed and wrapped a part of the light lavender sheets around his body and then headed off to see Galfore about that second bed.

END CHAPTER

WHEW! That was a long chapter!

So now a lot of the conflict between Raven and Nightwing is solved. Don't worry, Dickie-bird is still going to have woe-is-me-moments, but they aren't going to be as severe as they were in the first chapter or in Monster Extras. Do remember, though, he's making the transition from boy to man, and it's going to be hard on him.

Next chapter, we see more of Ryand'r and learn more about Raven's history, both with him and in general. Stayed tuned, and don't forget to review!