The knock at her door brought her out of meditation. Raven stood and walked over to her door.

"What." She asked with a note of hostility as she opened the door.

"We need to talk." Replied the masked boy in his authoritative team leader voice.

"I'm meditating. Can this wait."

"No Raven it can't, you are always meditating. So either we can go get a cup of tea somewhere or you can invite me in, but we are going to talk."

Even from under her hood she could not hide the irritation that crept over her face. Raven had no desire to leave the tower except when a call came in for the team, she stepped to the side to allow Robin entrance to her room and closed the door behind him.

"What's this about bird brain."

He looked around her room, everything was neatly organized, nothing out of place. He checked a mental inventory he had taken the last time he had been allowed in her room, there were a few new items, but everything that had been here before was still here, nothing was broken.

"What happened to your book club." he replied, it wasn't quite a question almost more of a statement.

Raven was thrown, she hadn't expected this. But she recovered quickly enough. "Cancelled. Indefinitely. To many differing opinions."

He turned to look at her. "Cancelled? You mean it was disbanded by conflicting opinions after a year and a half?"

"No. It wasn't disbanded. I meant I chose to leave. We got some new members and they weren't really interested in literature they just wanted a new place to gossip. Not exactly my thing. Why do you care anyway?" Raven said as she turned away from him to walk to a book shelf, she pretended to be looking for a particular book while in truth she was trying to holding back the conflict in her mind.

"Just curious. What about your tutoring. Or those classes you were taking. What happened to those?" He watched her carefully, wondering what the next lie she tried would be, or perhaps she would understand there was no point and tell him the truth.

She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. "Does this questioning lead to a point? Have I done something to warrant an interrogation? Didn't you make it clear that my classes, my tutoring, and my book club were distracting me from the team? Well they are no more so you should be happy, I am here full time and always ready for a mission."

She knew it was pointless to lie, she knew he didn't believe she had ever had classes, or tutoring. He may have believed at some point that she had been attending a book club, but it was clear that now he didn't. But even knowing that he knew she was lying she couldn't bring herself to tell the truth. She didn't want to think about the truth. She had spent the past two weeks trying to keep that truth locked away in a part of her mind that couldn't be accessed. Raven had spent every free moment she had locked in meditation fighting to keep her emotions at bay, she had taken to wearing her jewelry while meditating, and fought for her focus during battles. And now here stood Robin bringing the subject back to the forefront of her mind. Did he know the torment he was causing her? Did he know how much she wanted to forget what he was reminding her of?

"Raven." He whispered softly, "Raven, breathe."

She took a deep breath and turned towards him; she opened her eyes and saw the dark energy that covered almost every inch of her room, she had a moment to stop herself from panicking, she calmed herself, took another deep breath. She closed her eyes again and just took a few moments to imagine her room and imagine pulling her dark energy away from it. When she opened her eyes again it was all gone. She let out a last deep breath and looked down at the necklace she wore, the onyx stone that hung just above her chest had cracked.

"Your crafted meditations can only last so long, this one has worn out. The others are not far behind. This was never a permanent solution." Whispered the voice of Wisdom in her mind, "We need to be heard Raven, we are a part of you. Promise to come to Nevermore when Robin has left and we will promise to keep your powers under control during your conversation."

"Ok." Replied Raven both to herself and to Robin. After she was sure the emotions had pulled back she looked to Robin again. He stood watching her carefully but saying nothing. "How long did you know there was no book club?"

"Since the first night you went to book club." He saw the brief look of surprise cross her face, then continued, "It seemed odd that you would volunteer to spend time with, well, anyone. But I almost believed it, until you left and after a half an hour I felt something through our link."

Her eyes widened in surprise, she had long ago put up defenses against their link, for the both of them. She could still clearly remember the unintentionally shared dreams and emotions. She knew who he was; she knew about his family, she knew his secret. But it wasn't information he had given her freely, it had been shared through their dreams, in return he had received her nightmares of Trigon, her sadness of losing her home, her deep loneliness. All these things had brought them together on a level none of the other titans could understand, but it had also made them both vulnerable. They had meditated together for months to build walls to keep each other out of their dreams; they couldn't cut the link off completely. They could still reach each other or communicate in desperate moments or with intense focus and occasionally they could sense each other's moods. But it would have had to be acknowledged on both ends, as far as she knew they hadn't had contact that way in years.

"What do you mean? I haven't had direct contact with you in years, I would have known if you were trying to reach me. The defenses are connected, they work both ways."

"That was why I grew concerned. It wasn't the same kind of connection I had felt before to you, not at first, at first it was a hum in my ear then a snap. I had heard it before for a few months, followed by small leaks of emotion, nothing big nothing solid. I had actually planned to talk to you about it the night you told us you had joined a book club. But I decided to wait. And that night after the initial hum and snap there was more. Again nothing crisp and clear like before but somehow I knew it was you, I was going to call out to you, to make sure you were ok. But the emotion that came to me was excitement and happiness. I didn't want to interrupt that. But I didn't want to feel like I was spying on you either, so I doubled my own defenses put up another wall to keep your side from reaching me. After that I could still hear the pop and snap but I couldn't feel your emotions. I never talked to you about it because it wasn't continuous, and I didn't want to take away whatever it was that was making you able to feel these things without problem. But I was pretty sure it wasn't a book club. A month later my suspicions were confirmed when Jinx introduced you to us at a club as Rachel Roth."

Even while trying to process this new information Raven couldn't keep the small smile from her lips, of course he had known.

Robin caught the smile, but held back his own. He had come to talk to her for a reason and he wasn't going to let it go.

"Like I said I was able to keep out of your mind by doubling up on my defenses, but over the past few months something has changed."

Raven felt the lump in her throat and the weight on her chest, she took a seat on the floor, afraid she would lose her balance.

"I tried to keep myself apart from you; I did everything I could think of. But I couldn't keep it all out. I still couldn't talk to you because it was pretty clear that part of your life was not something you wanted me to know about. And the things you have been feeling these past few months, Raven I may not seem like a very sensitive or caring guy sometimes, but I could never forgive myself if I stopped you from getting to experience those things. All that being said, it is still pretty taxing to keep your side at bay, but I was managing because there were days when I didn't have the connection. So, Raven, what happened two weeks ago? Because I can't keep you out anymore, and the feelings that are coming through are strong, and confusing. Like every emotion you have is screaming in my mind."

She couldn't see his eyes, but she could tell that behind the mask his eyes were blood shot and dark from lack of sleep. As she looked at him now and thought back to the battles they had fought in the past two weeks she could see the weariness on him. She looked away from him to try to decide how much to tell him, her eyes caught a glimpse of a small black box that she knew held a bracelet and a ring. She looked down at the broken stone on her necklace. She couldn't help but laugh at herself for a moment. She had never thought about the small things that her powers controlled on a daily basis, her powers were deeply connected with her emotions, she could still use her powers when wearing her jewelry but they were nowhere near as strong. She had gotten so used to her shields being permanently activated she never considered that cutting the emotional tie would take them down.

"I'm sorry for the leak, but I promise it won't happen anymore. I understand what happened and again I am sorry I didn't realize it, but I can absolutely guarantee it's done, you have no reason to worry." She assured him.

Robin came towards her and sat down to face her; he reached up and pulled off his mask. His normally bright blue eyes were dull and tired; they were indeed surrounded by the red that screamed of no sleep. But they also had a sad concern in them. He reached and took her hand in his. They were warm through the green gloves.

"Rae I didn't come here because of me, I came because I am concerned about you. I know something bad happened two weeks ago, and I have left you alone because I knew you wanted to be left alone, but I can't leave you like this by yourself. I'm not here as Robin your leader, I am here as your friend Richard."

She looked at him; his concern was so clear an honest concern for a close friend. They had shared so much, some days they wanted to kill each other, but they would always defend each other. A large part of her wanted to tell him everything, to explain why she had been accidently leaking her emotion to him, to share with him her moments of happiness and freedom with Jinx, tell him about her relationship with Eric, and finally tell him the truth about Red X. But she couldn't. She didn't know if she was scared, ashamed, or just to hurt.

"I can tell this is hard for you Rae, I want to know what's going on with you, I want to help. But I'm not going to force you to tell me. I trust that you know you can come to me if I can help you in anyway. I've always been here for you, and I always will."

He squeezed her hand softly, she smiled a little. He put an arm around her and just held her. She laid her head on his shoulder, and accepted the comfort he offered. They didn't speak. It was enough for now.