I don't know if the old fellow would have considered it a compliment or not, but if I were gonna kill and/or torture someone, I'd definitely do it to Johnny Cash music. Screw the traditional Ave Maria stuff, nothing beats Cash for thematic depth by way of mood contrast. And yes, this comment will make sense once you read the chapter.

For those of you sensitive to such things, there's some gore in this chapter.

Chapter 2: Tainted Sanctuary

It was to Raven's intense relief that, so far, she hadn't made a duplicate of the Wicked Scary incident. In fact, quite a lot of the time she was exactly as calm as she appeared to be... only, rather than being a peaceful or casual calm, it was the sort of calm she recognized as living in a dull state of shock or denial. And there were repercussions in the form of occasional telekinetic explosions, difficulty concentrating on reading, even more difficulty yet with meditation, and extremely unpleasant conversations with herself at night as she stared up at her bedroom ceiling. Still, gifts, horses, mouths. She was coping.

She was also wondering if, maybe, maybe... she should retreat to a monastery or something, and leave the Titans be until she had total mastery over her powers. If she could mess up so badly once, she could do it again, and if something even half as unpleasant happened to one of her teammates because of it, she'd never be able to forgive herself. She wasn't a very forgiving person by nature. What held her back was a selfish thought... the thought that she probably wouldn't be able to completely explore and control the full depths of her powers in many years, if ever. And she'd miss her friends. It was an awful thought, to potentially endanger them for her own neediness... but still, she lingered, caught between the two fears and therefore immobile.

And it was these worries that were running through her mind, again and again, as she walked into the kitchen and started preparing her usual morning cup of tea.

"Good morning, friend Raven!"

"Yo, Rave!"

"Morning, Raven."

"Good morning." She looked around, expecting to see a fourth Titan but not finding him. Then she shrugged and went about her business. Beast Boy was known for sleeping in, after all. She got out some milk to add to her tea, grimacing as she maneuvered past the deadly maze of blue fungi, then paused as she noticed a small yellow square on the floor in front of the appliance. She bent down to pick it up, and turned it over. A notepad. With a note.

She read it to herself quietly, struggling for comprehension through the awful penmanship. When she was sure she'd gotten the whole thing, she read it over again, just to make sure.

"Guys, have any of you seen Beast Boy today?"

They looked at each other, then at her, shaking their heads in unison.

"Beansprout's prolly just sleepin' in, why?" Cyborg chimed in for all of them.

"'Guys, found possible lead on Fixit. Got to follow trail while fresh. Be back when I have something,'" Raven read aloud. "And then he put a little heart at the end with two Bs in it."

"That's excellent!" Robin said, pumping his fist in the air.

"The heart? Because I thought it was kinda pathetic," Raven said skeptically, one eyebrow raised.

"The lead, Raven. He should have told us first... but nevermind, I'll just call him on the communicator and get a fix on him."

The multi-tone signal chirped merrily in the air, and Raven, Cyborg, and Starfire all reflexively reached for their communicators before coming to their senses.

"Robin, man, are you sure you're callin' BB's communicator? I know the new signalling system I put in a while back can be a little confusing..."

"Don't patronize me, Cyborg, of course I'm calling his communicator!"

They went through a quick scavenger hunt reminiscent of the many Glorious Hunts for the Remote Control before Starfire upended the sofa with one hand and pointed in triumph at the bleeping device that had been laying underneath it.

"Man, how did it even get under there?" Cyborg wondered. Raven wondered with him. It had been right smack dab in the middle of underneath it, not exactly easy to reach or get dropped to.

"Who knows how Beast Boy does these things," Robin said with a sigh. "Well, that's it. We have no way of knowing what's going on, whether or not he could need backup. Let's all head out and start a basic search pattern of the city..."

Raven held up a hand. "Wait."

"Yes, Raven?"

"Let's not panic here. As much of a pain in the neck as Beast Boy is, he's never really let us down when things got serious. Don't forget the Brotherhood incident. And I think he's matured a lot lately..."

Cyborg and Starfire exchanged dubious looks.

"SLADEBOT!" Robin accused wildly, a finger jabbing out like a weapon. Raven was about to smack him for it when Starfire saved her the trouble. It was a light smack by Tamaranian standards, which meant that Robin flew facefirst into the sofa, and judged it wiser to remain there for the immediate future. "Sorry..." he muttered, voice muffled by the cushion.

"Anyway," Raven said with as much regal dignity as she could manage, "he's always had his priorities straight when it came to missions. I think we should just relax, let him do his thing, and trust him to retreat and come back when or if he needs help. For now, anyway."

The others thought over the idea. A trustworthy Beast Boy... she could see them turning over the brand-new concept in their heads like a shiny new toy.

"I don't know, there's still the possibility of him being overwhelmed in combat," Robin said finally, still doubtful.

"Yeah, but he can scout out most kinds of bad guys without them knowing he's there," Cyborg put in, more supportive. "And adapt to 'em as he needs to. And, well, if worst comes to worst, he can always do that... you know, that microbe-sized morph thing. To escape or hide."

"Indeed, even his smaller forms grant him great potency that I fear we have previously overlooked," Starfire said quietly. It didn't take an empath to tell she was thinking of Slade.

Robin looked around at them all, then at Raven, who smirked in victory. It was good to be part of a majority, for a change of pace. "Alright, since you all feel this way, I guess we can wait a while before panicking. Even Beast Boy can't get into that much trouble in one day."

"Actually, he can," Raven disagreed. "But I'm sure it'll be the right kinds of trouble."

"Amen," Cyborg said.

"What? Where are these men you speak of?"

"Uh... Robin, you wanna field this one?"

"I, uh, I think theology is really more Raven's-"

"Actually, being the spawn of a demon has made me intensely uninterested in what other people think about spiritual entities. Most of them don't know what they're talking about."

Robin sighed and gave himself in to explaining Christianity to Starfire, while Raven and Cyborg watched and enjoyed with subdued and not-so-subdued amusement, respectively. The only thing missing from the scene was Beast Boy. Not that she had a huge affection for his company over the others, it was just that he was one more necessary, unique piece of the puzzle, and his silliness was a needed element to complete the picture. The Titans were a living practice of personality-based feng shui, and right now they were missing a critical piece of furniture: the kiddie pool.

Still, at least she'd be able to enjoy the quiet while it lasted.

She was doing just that, catching up on a little Paula Volsky in the common room and enjoying the unusual serenity in the air, when Starfire saw fit to interrupt.

"Friend Raven?"

Raven sighed and put down her book carefully. Second to Beast Boy only, Starfire was the best at disrupting her tranquility with her latest inane idea about girling it up. At times Raven suspected her of reading Vogue, even if she never caught the alien at it...

"Yes, Starfire?"

"You have been doing much of the gaping lately. Are you getting satisfactory rest?"

Gaping? Yawning. Somewhere, somehow, someday, someone was going to have to teach that girl proper English. And it was probably going to be Robin.

"Yes, Starfire," Raven said, hastily seeking refuge in her book again. She'd much rather read about drug-addicted incestuous necromancers than talk to Starfire about how she no longer felt safe in her own bed because of what had happened there. "Just fine."

"Are you sure? Your head is drooping..."

"I'm reading a book, of course it's drooping," she snapped. And then immediately yawned. Drat it. "What?" she asked, startled to find Starfire's face just a couple inches from hers. "Personal space, Starfire..."

"Your eyes are shot with blood! Raven, proper sleep is important for any warrior, lest fatigue overwhelm them in combat! Perhaps a glass of warm milk before bed each night will help, I have heard that Cyborg-"

"Thanks but no thanks." Why couldn't the alien ever figure out when people didn't need or want her help?! She was Beast Boy with less humor and more conscience, it was endearing from a distance and disgusting up close.

"Perhaps you would prefer a soporific? I am sure Robin has some, he appears to have many assorted pills and other medicines in stock in his room, and there are of course many more in the room of healing sicknesses as well. Or, I have heard wonderous tales of the party of slumber, a great event where close friends gather together to share secrets and laughter before-"

"I don't want to go to a damned slumber party!" Raven burst out angrily, not sure where the sudden surge of rage had come from, like a searingly hot volcanic eruption through a thick crust of weary apathy. Along with it came the old yet always still surprising and refreshing feeling of having four eyes instead of two, with their own heat to share, and an urgent desire to wipe every beating heart clean from the earth, because they were all just mortal vermin, after all, and she hated them all...

A bird flying just outside a nearby window suddenly burst into black flames, screeched a brief death-cry, and plummeted out of sight. Then the flames roared back up in a thin tower, curling into a fanged skull that hissed at them before dissolving in the wind.

Starfire stared blankly.

The anger passed as quickly as it had appeared, and shame filled the void behind it. Raven's gaze went to the floor. "Maybe just one night..." she mumbled. No matter how hard she tried to stay in control, her grip always slipped eventually, and she hated herself for it.

"It has been a long time since I have seen you so angry," Starfire said, her voice gentle.

"I'm sorry. It's not your fault. It's, it's me, there's something wrong with me..."

"None the sense," Starfire said primly. "You are a wonderful friend and a glorious Titan and we are all glad to have you here with us. Oh, I have so much to do... I will need to purchase a proper set of pajama garments, and there must be video films of corn and cheese, and creamed ice!"

"...can it be chocolate?"

"Oh, most assuredly! The creamed ice may be any flavor you wish, friend Raven!"

"Okay." Raven smiled faintly.

So they did the sleepover thing, with all due pomp and circumstance. Cyborg even did the traditional sleepover-crasher thing via detached camera-equipped hand, purely for the tradition of the thing, Raven was sure. She and Starfire returned the favor by handing out the traditional pillow beatdown on his hand until it fled, whimpering like a puppy. After the second bowl of ice cream she was even mellow enough to agree to exchange her uniform for a pair of pajamas Starfire had bought expressly for the purpose. They were plain purple, thankfully, and just floppy enough to look ridiculous on her, but she didn't mind. Starfire's own pink, cat-adorned pjs were the same size but fit her, grrr, better-developed Tamaranian body more properly.

Starfire also had a nightlight. This alone would have been funny enough, but it was a Batman nightlight. She wondered what Robin thought of it, if he even knew. And she'd never, ever admit it, but it was actually kind of reassuring to not be in near-total darkness in an unfamiliar room. The soft yellow glow was comforting, and she even gave thought to doing something equivalent in her own room with a candle or two.

Truth or dare wasn't very interesting with just two people. For a moment, a very small moment, she missed Terra, before quickly pushing that stray splinter of emotion out of her consciousness with disgust. They ended up just talking for most of the night while stretched up on top of their sleeping bags. Starfire had gotten Teen Titans-themed sleeping bags. A Robin one for herself, and Raven had been given, for some reason, an Aqualad one. She wondered if Starfire was implying something, just because she thought Aqualad was good-looking... but everyone knew he was good-looking anyway! It was so obvious!

"Why are you blushing, friend Raven?"

"Eh? What? I'm not blushing." She reached reflexively for her hood, then ground her teeth when she remembered her cloak was in a corner, discarded.

"But your cheeks are most red, like the underbelly of the arporglangrik during hibernation!"

"It's a trick of the light, Starfire."

"Yes... of course it is..." Starfire said with a smirk, her expression eerily knowing.

"Anyway, can we go to sleep now? I'm exhausted." She was saying it mostly to distract Starfire, but it was true, too.

"But we have not done the watching of the Adam Sandler movie, or the-"

"Next time, Starfire."

"There will be a next time, then?" Starfire exclaimed gleefully.

Crap. "Oh... sure, fine, I guess so," Raven relented with a sigh. It was easier to give in than it was to fight.

She still had trouble sleeping, but this time it was because the carpet, padded only by a rather thin sleeping bag, wasn't as comfortable as a real bed. So she stared at the glowing Batman emblem for an indefinite period of time, listening to Starfire's breathing. It was a comforting sound, in a way.

Then Starfire rolled over on top of her, her long red hair enveloping her face like a hydra.

"I hate you," Raven told the still-sleeping Starfire calmly, and squirmed out from underneath, shuffling her sleeping bag a little over to one side.

Then Starfire rolled over again, just her arm violating Raven's cherished personal space this time. Raven started to get frustrated, then... she just decided to let it all go. Whatever, it wasn't important. She just laid there with Starfire's arm on top of her, and after a few minutes even started to find it comforting. It gave her flashbacks, more felt than remembered, to a time far back when she had been too young to be tutored by the monks... back to a time when she'd had a mother who'd cared for her, not because she'd done anything, but simply because she was. Starfire was like that with everyone, basically. Her heart reached out to everyone she knew... so gullible... so naïve... so, so caring...

She didn't even realize she'd been crying till she felt it tickle her nose. She sniffed, wiped the tears away, and finally went to sleep, sound as any infant in maternal arms.

The second day without Beast Boy came and went. Though Starfire was starting to worry, she still held fast with the other two in supporting Beast Boy over Robin's doubts. They all spent just a little more time than usual walking around aimlessly, though... a less deliberate form of pacing, getting rid of nervous energy. Beast Boy knew what he was doing. Beast Boy could handle himself. Right? Right.

The third day came, and Raven didn't have too much time to worry about Beast Boy or her own troubles, because Robin woke her up early.

"Starfire, do you know where- oh, there you are, Raven. I didn't know you were still doing the sleepover thing."

"Nnph. Sure. What is it?" she mumbled, sitting up and straightening her hair reflexively. Starfire was still sound asleep, and appeared to be sucking her thumb. "Is there trouble?"

"Sort of. Not an emergency, just... I want you to accompany me to a crime scene."

She was wide awake now. "Just me? What about the others?"

"I... I don't think they need to see this. You can take the time to shower and have breakfast, but after that I need you to come with me, okay?"

"Right." She didn't waste breath asking questions that would probably be answered at the crime scene. She had a quick shower, a quick mug of tea and some cereal, and was ready to go before Starfire or Cyborg were awake.

The fog of early morning was still thick, making it hard to see, so she ended up riding behind Robin on his R-Cycle. It was chilly out, too, and she was secretly glad for the body heat. Maybe she could design an alternate uniform for cold weather. Something with fur. She made a note to ask Red Star about some Russian clothing designs. Due to her 'special' heritage, heat was never a problem, but the cold, ugh. Robin explained the situation on the trip, and she even managed to hear it all through the chattering of her teeth.

"It's a murder. A messy one. Definitely not manslaughter. This would normally be something for the police to handle on their own, but some of the evidence leads them to suspect a metahuman was involved. They have a pretty good lead on who they think the killer is, but he's pretty much a cypher... no one knows where he came from or where he's gone to. The prints at the scene aren't helping. Anything Cyborg can do to investigate the scene, I can do just as well, with the cooperation of the police. But I wanted you to come too to see if you can pick up any useful emotional imprints."

It made sense. He hadn't wanted Starfire to be traumatized, and Cyborg could be left at home to spare him the trouble, but she was indispensable. It actually made her feel good to be that valued as a team member... until she remembered the unnerving Raven-Sladebot event and started to wonder if perhaps Robin had ulterior motives and was just using this as an excuse to spend time with her. No, that couldn't be it. Robin was a straightforward obsessive workaholic. Psychoanalyzing him like that was an insult to the team's leader. He was more responsible than that.

"I was hesitant to come here at first, but when I saw a picture of the victim... well. I'll show you, when we get there."

"Ooh. I like mysteries," she deadpanned through the lip-chapping wind. Well, at least it would be a change of pace from fighting Doctor Light or Cinderblock for the nth time. "Now, when you say messy..."

"It was impossible to identify the body by the remains alone," he said grimly. "They're not even totally sure they have all the pieces recovered."

"That's... awful," Raven said, instead of any number of other sarcastic, quipy things she could have said. She'd seen a lot of horrible things in her time as a superhero, but not once had she witnessed a crime so bloody.

They stopped in front of a small house in an average-looking middle-class neighborhood. It was surrounded by yellow crime scene tape that cut a garish ribbon through the fog, and several police cars were parked in front. When they parked next to a car, a dark-skinned officer got out to greet them.

"I'm surprised you kids aren't freezing to death in those thin outfits you've got on," he greeted them with subdued amiability, holding a hand out. "I'm Lieutenant Nobaudee."

"Lieutenant... Nobody?" Robin repeated slowly, clearly sure he had heard that wrong. He still shook the proffered hand, though.

"Yes, Nobaudee," the cop replied wearily, apparently having gone through this many, many times before. "Jim Nobaudee. My father's French, my mom's Swahili, they decided to blend their names together when they got married as a statement of equality between sexes, and this is the appellation I'm cursed with as a result."

"You poor man," Raven said dryly. She was genuinely sympathetic, though. As funny as it was, she could only imagine how annoying it had to be going through life with a name like that. Heck, it was hard enough just going through life being named Raven... oh, the goth jokes never stopped coming...

"Anyway, why don't I show you inside? We're done with most of what we need to do here... just mind the tape when you step in the room. Some of the victim's friends are in the living room. We're done questioning them, but kept them around in case you'd like to ask them anything yourself."

"Thanks. I think I'll do that. Raven, why don't you check out the room and see what you can pick up?"
"Lucky me. By the way, Robin, you never showed me that picture..."

Wordlessly, Robin held up a small school photograph, and she knew instantly why Robin had decided to get involved.

It was Terra.

"No," she breathed. Her first emotion was one of raw hatred. Didn't the bitch have anything better to do than to keep on coming back to ruin their lives?! The next ones were guilt and sadness. Terra had been murdered horribly. She hadn't ruined their lives this time. Someone had ruined hers. "I... I didn't even know she'd gotten out of the stone somehow... when did it happen? Why didn't she try to make contact with us? Wait, how do we know it's even her?"

"I'm pretty sure it's her. The statue's gone from the cave. Best guess is that she wanted to make a fresh start. The family she's living with adopted her, she was wandering the streets before that. She called herself Tara, not Terra. And according to my sources, she never once used her powers while in her Tara persona, and never even talked about the Titans."

"Look, uh, maybe you shouldn't go into the actual crime scene," Nobaudee butted in, seemingly unusually hesitant. "I know you're professionals at what you do and all, I'm not questioning that, but... it wasn't a pretty way to go, the way she went. And if you still have some emotional attachment to her..."

"I can handle it," Raven said coldly, before Robin could reply. "Show me."

She was lead past the living room with crying, distraught friends. Robin stopped there to get more details from them, while she was given the pleasure of being escorted upstairs to a room with a closed white door. The gleaming golden doorknob on the thing somehow seemed sinister, like it might bite.

"I'll be right outside the door if you need me for anything," Nobaudee said quietly, seeming to think that she would.

"Right. Thanks," she said curtly. She appreciated the gesture, but she'd been through the end of the world. She could handle one little corpse. That was what she told herself as she opened the door and walked inside, and almost threw up.

The tape indicated a sparse clear walkway area in the middle of the room for viewers. It was sparse because the evidence, in the form of blood and body parts, was scattered all around the room. The white walls were stained red, the furniture was home to various organs, and the sickly odor of death clung to the air like the fog outside.

Terra, or Tara, or whoever she had been, hadn't just been killed. She'd been torn to pieces with wild abandon until there hadn't been two inches of flesh or bone left together, everything tossed all about as if the killer couldn't bear to leave any part of the room clean. One eyeball stared up at her from the middle of the carpet, and another was stuck to a needle that had been jabbed into the bed's pillow. Bones had been cracked and crunched. Most of the flesh was torn up so much that the individual parts were unidentifiable.

Half-demon or no, nothing in her life had prepared her for it, and she put one hand to her mouth, hyperventilating frantically before bringing herself under control. Azarath, metrion, zinthos. It was just a dead body. Parts of a dead body. Lots of parts. Azarath, metrion, zinthos. Dead things didn't hurt anyone. Azarath, metrion, zinthos. She hurt people, though. She was going to find whoever had done this and make them pay. Not even a traitor deserved to die like that... Azarath... Metrion... Zinthos...

Even more disturbing than the horror was the feeling of excitement, almost of arousal, that she knew to be coming from her demon side. It was Terra! The bitch had deserved it! But the horror and grief and disgust won out easily. No one deserved that. No one.

There was a cd player plugged in, paused in the middle of a song. Feeling that she should at least know what music Terra had been listening to when she'd died, she used her powers, so as to not leave fingerprints, and rewound the track and pressed play. Her ears were immediately assaulted by the sound of incongruously cheerful brass instruments. The volume was loud enough to hurt her ears.

Love... is a burning thing

And it makes... a fiery ring

Bound... by wild desire

I fell into a ring of fire

I fell into a burnin' ring of fire

I went down, down, down, and the flames went higher

And it burns, burns, burns

The ring of fire

The ring of fire...

She flicked the music off. Crime of passion, or just coincidence? Maybe she'd be able to get enough of a psychic imprint to tell. She'd have to use her powers to the fullest now, there was no getting around it. She couldn't afford to be timid. Robin was counting on her, and she knew he knew her limits just as well as she did. They had a connection, and he wouldn't push her harder than she could take. Even if he didn't know about... well, she wouldn't be Raven if she didn't have secrets.

She levitated into the air, crosslegged, and focused herself into a state of utter calm. She had to know what had happened. What the victim had been doing and feeling... who the killer was... everything. She commanded the tiny part of the universe that consisted of this room to bare its secrets to her, sweeping away the concealing curtain of time. And to an extent, the universe obeyed.

She got shards of memory, quick and infrequent at first, but longer and more often as she kept the concentration up. Playful affection, some lust, two teenaged lovers tumbling into bed together to make out... then, a completely incomprehensible turn of events. Shock, confusion, fear. Pain. Lots and lots of pain. More and more. The music was loud for a reason. It masked the screams from the hearing of the partygoers downstairs. There was no sense to it, no logic, no reason, no understanding. Just wild, animalistic, happy-hateful cruelty and uncomprehending suffering. Terra had died slowly, she had died a little bit at a time, by tools and weapons and random objects and a boyfriend that somehow took on a thousand different shapes. Actual death was a relief by the time it came, because it meant an end to the fear and physical and mental agony. The void had swallowed Terra up, and she had been glad for it, even knowing that her killer wasn't finished even yet, he was going to defile her corpse until there was nothing left that could be recognized as human. His hatred was something incredible, an elemental force unto itself, screaming and fanatical. It was that very special kind of hatred that Raven recognized from her own life, from hating Terra and Malchior. It was the kind of hate that only came from spoiled love. No other form of hatred had that force of sharp, tainted passion to it. Maybe no other emotion, period.

And that was all she got, because her own whirlwind of emotions threw her out of the trance. She fell flat on the floor, and then scrambled outside hastily, closing the door behind her, panting, eyes wide but not really seeing.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, heard a voice.

"Miss Raven? Miss, are you alright?"

Nobaudee.

"I'm fuh... I'm fine," she said shakily, then belied the statement as she leaned helplessly against a wall, arms wrapped tightly around herself, breathing as though she'd just finished a foot race, her entire body shaking. He didn't let go of her shoulder, and she didn't even care.

"It's okay... it's okay... I'm sorry you had to see that... let's just go downstairs and sit down for a bit," he said in the soothing kind of voice one used on wild animals and hysterical people. She hadn't the presence of mind to argue with him, and let him take her to a chair, and sat down.

At least she stopped panting and shaking by the time Robin saw her. She drew her hood up far enough to conceal even more of her face than usual.

"I think they've told me everything they can," he said quietly. "You okay, Raven?"

Damn him for being perceptive. "Fine," she said, even though they both knew it was a lie. "What did you get?"

They also knew that there was a time to be personal and a time to be professional, and being at a crime scene meant being professional. "She had a boyfriend supposedly from another school, no one knows which one, though. He was really outgoing, silly, and a bit on the prank-loving side. Goofy, but likable. A real heartbreaker, too... classic firm-jawed, baby-faced, slender and muscular type. Only really suspicious personality trait is that he had an explosive temper whenever it came to someone questioning his maturity or intelligence. A real inferiority complex going on. Never beat anyone up, though, just sort of made vague threats. Never got violent. Until now. Terra's foster parents were away for a few days, so she had a party. There was some beer and marijuana but nothing heavier than that. She and her boyfriend went to her bedroom when the party was getting late, and turned on some loud music. Between that and the music already playing, it must have muffled the sounds pretty well. This house is well-made, too, the walls are thick. No one saw the boyfriend come out after that. There's no signs of exit from the windows, either. They didn't realize anything had happened until one of her friends came upstairs to confess about a beer stain on a nice piece of furniture. That's all from my end. Did you have any luck?"

"Yeah," she said quietly. "I... I couldn't get a really clear impression of everything... there was a lot of interference from the, from the victim's emotions." And her own, but that was her little secret. "I got a good idea of what went on though. The killer's some kind of shapeshifter or illusionist, I think. He kept changing shapes after he started attacking her. She was... she was alive for most of what he did to her, aside from tearing the corpse into little pieces and scattering them about. He wanted her to suffer, so he killed her slowly, using whatever random ideas that came to his mind. He hated her. It was a really personal kind of hatred. The kind between lovers or close friends. That's all I've got."

"That''ll have to be enough, then. Thanks, Raven. I know that had to be hard for you to do."

It hadn't been hard, not in the sense of being difficult. It had just been really, really unpleasant. She was glad she was still doing the sleepover thing. She knew she was going to have nightmares tonight even with Starfire in the same room. Without Starfire, she didn't even want to think of trying to go to sleep. But Robin didn't need to hear any of that. "No problem. Is there anything else left to do here?"

"No. Let's go home. I want to put some information through the computer and touch base with Star and Cyborg. Maybe Beast Boy's back by now, too. But if he is... let's not tell him about this, okay?"

"Of course." It had never even crossed her mind to do anything but keep this from Beast Boy. The poor guy had suffered over Terra enough as it was.

At least the ride back wasn't as cold. On the other hand, maybe that was a bad thing, because it let them both think more easily, and Robin started voicing some of those thoughts when they were at a red light. Thoughts that Raven had been afraid of hearing. Thoughts that she really, really didn't want to hear.

"You... you know, Raven... back when Slade fooled me with that Raven robot... I..."

She couldn't believe he was doing this. All the times he'd never been able to splutter out anything resembling sentiment to Starfire, not until Tokyo, and now he was fumbling through... something... directed at her. She didn't know or care whether it was a proposal to start dating or a philosophical rejection of the same or just a comment about how she looked good, she didn't need to deal with it. For one thing, there was Starfire. For another, she wasn't a fit partner for anyone... not after what had happened to her... what she'd done to herself with her own carelessness. No. It was best to shut it all down right here and now, before the light even changed colors.

"Whatever happened, didn't happen with me," she said, words clipped. "So I don't really see why you'd feel the need to talk about it with me."

"I... alright," he gave in.

They didn't talk for the rest of the ride back.

Beast Boy wasn't there to greet him when they arrived back at the tower, and he didn't show up later in the day, either. All the Titans went to sleep just a little more worried than they'd been yesterday.

The third day was utterly uneventful. No new crimes. No new leads on old crimes. And definitely no Beast Boy. Starfire and Cyborg gave in to Robin's doubtmongering, but Raven held firm, and by sheer force of will kept them from mucking things up. Beast Boy had wanted to be on his own... if they went after him, it would seem like they didn't trust him to be mature or competent, even after all he'd done for them. He'd been through a lot lately. He deserved to feel good about himself, and she was convinced that this was the best way to help him feel that way. To let him know that he wasn't just comic relief, but a valued member of the team.

Then the fourth day dawned, and he still wasn't back.

And the fifth.

And the sixth.

By now, Robin and Cyborg paced openly. Starfire brushed her hair far too much, and stopped flying. And Raven? Raven was outwardly unchanged, as always, but inside she was fretting herself into a heart attack. The stupid little goofball could be injured, or captured, or lost somewhere...

So, when Robin finally addressed the topic again, while she was setting up a card pyramid just in front of the sofa, her mind wasn't as certain as it had previously been.

"Look, Raven, I know you're doing what you think is best for him, but I think it's time to call it quits on the support for independence and figure out what's going on so we can back him up."

"Well... I..."

The electronic tone that let them know there was an incoming call sounded, and Robin made a sound of mild annoyance and ran a hand through his hair. "We'll talk about it in a minute, okay? Let me just take care of whatever this is first."

A grumpy-looking Superman appeared on the screen, and Raven's eyes widened while Robin seemed paralyzed at the mildly terrifying honor of the man of steel's long-distance presence. She sat up straighter and fixed her cloak, hoping her hair was straight. Her attempt to casually put down the cards in her hand disrupted the entire pyramid, and she let out a sigh as she watched the cards scatter.

"Robin." He was using a no-nonsense voice. "I've been overlooking your teammate Starfire's little activities in Metropolis up to now, as has most of the superhero community, but this latest thing... this is just too much."

Robin looked as bewildered as Raven felt. Starfire in Metropolis? When had that ever happened? What latest thing?

"I'm sorry, sir," Robin said with the voice of someone who was scrambling to get a grasp on a situation when he had no idea what the issues were, "I'm really not sure what you're talking about. Starfire's never been in Metropolis as far as I know. What latest thing are you talking about? Just let me know what we Titans can do to help and we'll be glad to, as always..."

Superman's frown deepened ever so slightly. "Please, Robin, don't tell me you've been unaware of your teammate's licentious activities up until now. You live in the same building with her, for heaven's sake. You've nothing to gain by playing innocent. And definitely nothing to gain by letting your other teammates run out of control with convicted criminals!"

Robin seemed so startled by this response that he was temporarily robbed of his power of speech. So Raven mercifully filled in for him, putting her usual monotone to good use.

"Superman, we don't have a clue what you're talking about. Could you get to the point before you give my noble leader a heart attack?"

Superman held up a newspaper.

They read the headlines.

"No... freaking... way..." Robin murmured in a state of pure disbelief.

Raven stared, and stared, and stared, until the black print seemed to dance mockingly before her eyes. She didn't know what the hell was going on, but somehow, she knew, it was all Beast Boy's fault! Attacking people in the middle of an adult club! Collaborating with a villain they'd actually locked up recently! And somehow, whatever insanity people were caught up in that made them think that innocent Starfire of all people was in adult entertainment... somehow, that was his fault too! She'd trusted him, she'd thought he'd grown up, and here he was in the middle of a public relations quagmire the likes of which she'd never seen before! That little bastard!

"Uh, Raven, why are your eyes glowing like-" Superman started to ask, before being interrupted by the television exploding in a twisting whirlwind of black energy.

There was dead quiet while Raven seethed silently with betrayed fury, and then Robin calmly brushed pieces of the monitor off of his uniform. "Well," he said grimly, "at least we know where he is now. I think it's time we took a trip to the east coast."

Raven didn't argue this time.