DISCLAIMER: I do not own Teen Titans or its characters, TV show or otherwise. This story is for entertainment purposes only. It will take place within the universe of the TV series, and be after the end of said series as well as the movie Trouble in Tokyo. It will be a Raven x Jinx pairing, along with the Robin x Starfire pairing established by the series and movie. If you don't like yuri, don't read any further. Same thing if you don't like the Raven x Jinx pairing. If you don't like Teen Titans, then I have no idea how you found this story in the first place. Rated M.

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay in this chapter; I wanted to make sure it was right, and lived up to the expectations for it. Here's the chapter you've all been waiting for since the prologue. I know that all of you have been wondering what the hell Raven did to cause Jinx to do what she did. Well, in this chapter, you'll find out. You'll also find out what happened in the mean time, between 'it' and the start of the prologue. I know, I know, enough talking, get it on with it already.

Nothing Is Harder Than Love

Chapter 9 - This Is 'It'

Deep underground, in a hidden room that itself lies within a hidden facility, the man who had brought a few of the Titan's enemies sat in the middle of a circle of arcane design etched into the floor. Etched into the walls of the room were more arcane designs and symbols. Few people in this dimension could understand them, much less utilize them. Only two were in Jump City. Before the man, who was seated in a lotus position, floated a shimmering oval that rippled and wavered like water does when it is disturbed. A deep, powerful voice eminated from the 'ripple', which pulsated in time with the words.

"You have done well, my servant," it said.

"Your instructions on when and how to push her were most informative," the man replied. "I merely listened to the wisdom of one who is wiser than I."

"Do not cross me," it warned him. "I am not . . . forgiving . . . with those who do so."

Raven was different.

It wasn't just her uncharacteristic control (or lack thereof); she was behaving differently. She was back to talking in a monotonous tone, but there was an undercurrent of impatience to it now. Her anger flared more and more often, though she didn't reach the same 'demonic state' that she had during the battle with Cinderblock. It seemed to the others that her meditations made the problem worse, rather than better. It was getting to the point that Cyborg had begun quietly preparing some special tranquilizers - just in case. Starfire was becoming distressed by Raven's continued behavior towards Jinx. Compared to how they used to be, it was as though the two girls were enemies now. At least, that's how the Tamaranian princess saw it. And Nightwing feared that she was right, to an extent.

Raven walked through the desolate landscape her mind had become. She was looking for her emotions, specifically Love, but wasn't able to find any of them. It was as though they were hiding from her, which was odd in itself; Anger should've been there to tell her off and Courage never ran away or hid from anything.

So where were they?

She went to the area of her mind where Love had taken up residence when she'd first awakened - she didn't 'move' when Jinx rekindled her - only to find herself blocked from entering.

"She isn't there anymore," came her own voice, though with a different inflection, from behind her. Turning around, Raven saw it was Knowledge.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked.

"She went in months ago and never came out," was the reply.

"She should still be there, then."

"Agreed. But she isn't."

"How do you know?"

"I'm Knowledge, remember? Besides, before it somehow became impassable, Timid went in."

"Timid?" Raven asked incredulously.

"Surprised everyone," Knowledge admitted. "Of course, Courage wasn't about to be outdone by her and ran in without thinking - as usual." She sighed. "When they came out, they said Love wasn't there. And shortly after that, we couldn't go in anymore."

"What's going on?"

Knowledge snorted. "You really have to ask?" she said. "After Anger's warning a year and a half ago? Raven, you aren't you anymore." She looked at her long and hard. "And it started when Love began disappearing from us."

"Disappearing?"

"Yes. Fear was, well, afraid that she'd seen something following Love one day and told Courage. Courage ran off to confront it - and came back badly hurt. I would have said Anger did it, but she was with me at that time."

"Anger has changed a lot, especially since Terra died," Raven argued.

"True, she was better when Love first appeared, and when Jinx came into your life," Knowledge agreed. "But over the past year and a half she's changed in a bad way. She really started changing after she managed to get that warning to you." Then the emotion looked at her strangely. "But you should have already known that. Especially with all of those outbursts you've had lately."

"I . . . I'm just . . . under some stress," she said in weak denial.

"What stress? Those nightmares? Those are tied to whatever - or whoever - took Love."

"Whoever?"

"Yes, that is part of what I said. There's a familiar aura in your unconcious, near the subconcious. We haven't gone in there because I'm not certain we would be able to come back out without your help. And you're not very reliable right now."

That hurt, but Raven knew it was true. She hadn't been reliable at all for a while. Yet try as hard as she tried, nothing changed. For the better, that is.

"I'll figure it out later," she said as turned to leave. Knowledge reached out and grabbed her shoulder.

"You need to figure it out now," she told her sternly. "Or there may not be a later."

When Raven came back to herself, the first thing she became aware of was the sound of an alert. Snapping her eyes open, she unfolded from her levitating lotus position and glided out of her room. Upon reaching the common room, she noticed that Jinx and the others were already there.

"Glad you could make it, Sweets," Jinx said in a rather flat voice. Raven didn't even wince at her tone.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Trouble with a capital big," Cyborg replied. "Someone's attacking Technological Innovations."

"Again?" Nightwing asked. Cyborg shook his head.

"No, this time they're after the main research and development facility in the inner city," he replied. "TI's security forces are trying to keep them from the experimental labs, but aren't succeeding."

"Looks like we've got a job to do," Nightwing said. He walked over to Raven, while Jinx went over to Starfire. Lowering his voice, yet maintaining a stern tone, he said, "I don't know what shit is going on with you, but you keep it together this time. If you can't control yourself, I'm cutting you from all future missions. Understand?" Raven felt her anger well up; how could he talk to her like that? What made her anger grow was the knowledge that he was right.

"Perfectly," she replied in a flat monotone, the faint red glow fading from her eyes.

"You better," he warned. Then, louder, he said, "Alright, take us there."

The trip from the Tower to the TI facility through Raven's soulself was worse this time; probably due to Raven's weakening control over her emotions. Everyone was thankful when they appeared outside the building.

"I'm not picking up any sounds around here," Cyborg said, studying the readout on his arm. "At least, nothing that isn't normal for this time of day. Er, night."

"So they've gone deeper into the facility?" Changling asked.

"Yes; most of the main facility is underground."

"Terrific," Raven said in a monotone.

"Makes me all tingly inside," Jinx agreed in the same monotone. Nightwing heard their voices and sighed. This situation is going to explode, he thought, and soon. Out loud, though, he said, "Let's find them and stop them."

As they moved through the building floor by floor, always going down, they saw the bodies of the guards sprawled everywhere. The once pristine-white hallways had received a new, ominous red paint scheme. Apparently, the gloves were off and the villains weren't holding back this time. This could be really bad, Nightwing thought. Especially where Raven is concerned. He was already thinking about cutting her off from active duty with the team after this mission; at least until she got herself straightened out. Once they got to the lowest floor of the TI facility, things worsened.

The people attacking the place weren't meta-humans; they were H.I.V.E. combat drones of an unfamiliar design. They had bulky forearms, hunched armored torsos, and forward-thrusting, angular 'heads'. When the Titans appeared, the drones turned and their forearms swapped out the hand manipulators for heavy blaster cannons. Raven and Jinx moved in tandem, Jinx sending hex bolts at the robots while Raven threw up a shield to deflect the laser fire. Changling turned into an ankylosaurus and charged forward as Raven dropped her shield, while Cyborg and Starfire started sending sonic barrages and starbolts at the drones. Nightwing flung his blade-edged bird-a-rangs, which sliced into the drones before exploding.

Raven, meanwhile, held up a small shield of dark energy that she moved around to deflect lasers while simultaneously crushing the machines' weapon-arms with her power. This is taking too long, she thought, her anger welling up. Abandoning her defensive actions, she formed her energy into a large sphere and slammed into the midsts of the drones before releasing it. A massive explosion rocked the area, sending anything standing to floor.

"Watch it!" Jinx snapped at her. "We're here, too, damnit!"

"We were taking too long," Raven growled back.

"That's enough!" Nightwing commanded. "Bad guys now, quarrel later!"

Sending each other dark glares, the two girls followed their teammates into what appeared to be a long corridor. No sooner had they gotten past the door when it slammed down. More doors slammed down in the corridor, isolating Raven from the others. Before she could rip apart the doors, the 'section' she was in started ascending - meaning that it was an elevator. She tried to quell her rising anger, but knew it was a losing fight. Why bother? she thought morosely. It isn't as if it would make any difference anymore. Just then, the elevator stopped moving and the door behind her slid up into the ceiling. Turning around, she saw a large room of some kind. A tower of some sort was in the middle of the room, locked into a base in a concave dip in the floor - with a matching one in the ceiling. Looking around, she saw that there were elevated monitoring stations all around the room, plus a 'command station platform' about halfway down each side of the room.

"Welcome, Raven," came a familiar voice over the speakers. "I am pleased that you could make it on such short notice."

"Why don't you get out here?" she snapped. "Stop hiding like a coward!"

"You really should watch that temper," came the voice again, although this time it wasn't echoing from the speakers, but coming from one of the CSPs. She watched as an old man in a red-and-black jumpsuit with a custom-worked jacket over it.

"Blood," she growled, her fists lighting up with dark energy.

"I am glad you did not disappoint me, Raven," Blood said, smiling condescendingly to her. "After all, I went to so much trouble to bring you to this point."

"What are talking about?" she snapped, irritated with his oh-so-superior attitude.

"You honestly do not know?" he said, pretending shock. "I thought you would have figured it out by now. All those little attacks here and there, stealing devices that had no apparent connection to each other? The menagerie of villains you keep capturing over and over again? The clues that seemed to indicate some devastating plan of evil?" He chuckled with great amusement. "It was all a 'red herring', I believe is the term."

"What?" she asked, shock momentarily cutting through her anger.

"That is correct," Blood told her. "None of it was intended for anything other than to run you, and you alone, ragged. To stress you out, stretch you thin. Everything else was dressing to distract your friends."

"Why? What reason could you have for doing this?"

"Power."

"You're not making any sense!" she yelled, slamming him into a wall with blast of darkness. His only reaction was to chuckle as he picked himself up from the floor where he'd fallen to.

"I made a deal," he told her calmly, brushing his clothes off. "I get power, and my partner gets revenge."

"What partner?"

"You should know him already, my child. You have dealt with him once already."

"Tell me! NOW!"

Nightwing and the others had easily escaped the trap they'd walked into, and Cyborg had hacked TI's network and learned about the central area, which the floor plans referred to as the 'artificial inducement center'. And judging by the signal from Raven's communicator, that's where she had ended up. Whoever was behind all of this had to be there, too, and Nightwing was trying to get there as fast as possible - before anything could happen. He had a rapidly sinking feeling, though, that they wouldn't be in time.

"We've got to move faster!" he urged.

"We can't if I'm checking for traps," Cyborg argued.

"Screw the traps! We've got to get to Raven!"

Blood was chuckling at her. Again. He seemed to find her amusing, which only infuriated her further.

"You are pathetic, child," Blood said. "How you could have stopped him is beyond me."

"Start talking," Raven growled, her eyes glowing a vibrant and dangerous red, "or I start ripping you apart."

"That," he told her, "is something you will not do. You are incapable of it."

"Try me," she said softly, all four of her eyes glowing an angry and demonic red.

All five of the New Titans stopped in cold dread when they heard a blood-chilling scream erupt from somewhere ahead of them. To Jinx, though, the scream seemed to reach down into her soul and chill it from the core. They all broke into a dead run, heedless of anything but getting to that room. They got there in less than half a minute, but that was still thirty seconds too late. When the door to room slid up into the ceiling, the sight that greeted hit them with enough force to make them stumble back.

"Oh. My. God," Cyborg said, while Changling turned away and began heaving up every bit of tofu he'd eaten all day. Starfire's hands flew to her mouth, and she buried her head in Nightwing's shoulder, while Jinx just stared in complete and utter shock and horror. The artificial inducement center looked as though it had been spray painted red and decorated with garish garlands. And there, in front of the central computer/virtual operations tower, stood Raven. She was holding Brother Blood in her hand - or, rather, what was left of him. And when Raven turned to look at them, her expression frightened all of them worse than anything ever had before: four glowing demonic red eyes and a sinister smile that showed she had enjoyed what had happened.

Far away, in another dimension, the true instigator behind everything that had occured over the past eighteen months was chuckling with malicious amusement. Everything had gone as he had planned it. Revenge is just, he thought, laughing louder. What a delicious turn of events this turned out to be. Her anger didn't overwhelm her; it consumed her. Soon enough, she will be coming to me. And then I shall truly . . . enjoy 'talking' to her.

When Raven awoke back at the Tower, she found herself in the sealed room tht had been created for her when her dark destiny had come calling. Sitting up, she winced as the dull ache in the back of her head intensified into a sharp piercing pain.

"Ow!" she cried out, grabbing her head. "What happened?"

"Glad you're awake," came a voice over the intercom.

"Cyborg?" she asked, rubbing her head.

"Yeah, it's me. How are you feeling?"

"Like shit," she replied. "What happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us."

"What do you mean?"

"Raven, you killed Blood."

"No," she breathed. "No."

"I'm sorry," he told her, "but it's true. Not only were you holding what was left him, drenched in his blood, but the security tapes confirmed it."

"No. No. Oh, no," she said in denial.

"I wiped the the entire security system with a special viral program. It'll scramble any attempts to reconstruct the record," he said. "Nightwing told me to do it. And . . . I'm sorry."

"About what?" she asked in a whisper, her gaze falling down to her lap.

"For knocking you out. I'd prepared a special tranquilizer that was targeted on your blood, and was engineered to . . . well, reboot your nervous system. Basically."

"Is that what happened?"

"Partially. A side effect of the forced reboot is partial memory loss. You won't remember much of what happened up to, roughly, five minutes before you got hit with it. Do you remember anything at all?"

"I . . . remember getting separated from you guys," she said slowly. "And then the 'room' I was in rose like an elevator, and then I was standing in that room. Blood was there. It was him." She looked at where she though Cyborg would've place the micro-camera array. "He was behind all of the attacks, the thefts."

"Why? Did he say what his plan was? Was Nightwing right?"

"No. No, he was completely wrong. There wasn't any overall plan; all he was doing was trying to get me angry, to push me to the breaking point."

"And he succeeded."

"He did."

"But why was he doing that? What could've been his reasons?"

"He wanted power. Someone, or something, had promised him a lot of power to do it all. Whoevever, or whatever, it is, wanted revenge on me." She looked back down at her lap. "I don't know why. I don't know who, either. And I bet everybody hates me, now."

"No one hates you, Rae. They're all just . . . scared."

"What about you? Aren't you scared?"

"Not so much. I always knew you could crush me like a tin can if you wanted to."

Raven couldn't help herself; she chuckled a little at that.

"Raven . . . no one wants to let you out."

That didn't come as much of a shock to her as she would have thought.

"I . . . understand," she said. "Considering what's been happening, I don't blame them."

"Nightwing thought you would, so he told me to let you out when you regained consciousness."

"Somehow, I get the feeling that I'd be better off in here."

Her assumptioin was correct; Nightwing met her in the common room - alone. Cyborg went down to the garage as soon as he'd unlocked the chamber, and Starfire and Changling had gone to mall. Jinx was nowhere to be found, although Raven knew she was around. The lecture she got from Nightwing was both better and worse than she'd expected. Worse, in that he came down hard on her about her behavior over the past year and a half, her actions in and out of battle, and most especially her actions at the Techological Innovations facility. She didn't say anything; what could she have said? She had no excuses, not anymore. And, she realized, no desire to defend herself, either. Everything he said was true. What made the lecture better than she'd expected was that, while he was saying she was responsible for each and every one of her actions, he didn't yell at her, didn't take the high moral ground, didn't come off as the team leader; instead, he talked to her as a friend. Something she felt she didn't deserve to be called, considering how she treated everyone. Especially Jinx. And that conversation was one she dreaded.

Because she had a feeling that it would be far, far worse than the one with Nightwing.

When Raven went looking for Jinx, she found her where she had expected to find her: in her room, sitting on her bed. She hesitated in the doorway, not wanting to be here but not wanting to leave, either. When Jinx noticed her, after several minutes of waiting there, the expression on her face broke Raven's heart. Where before, meaning 18 months or so ago, there would have been a love too deep to be fathomed, there was nothing. Before, they would have hugged for several minutes, enjoying the feel of each other; now, she had been ignored - or not noticed - for just as long. And Raven had no one to blame but herself.

"What do you want?" Jinx asked in a neutral voice that cut through Raven's soul.

"I . . . I . . ." Raven couldn't speak; what could she say. "I don't know."

"Funny," the other girl replied. "Once, you would've known exactly what to say. Once, you might not have needed to say anything."

"What do you want me to say?" Raven asked, her voice showing a small hint of irritation; something Jinx noticed easily.

"I want you to tell me what's going on with you," Jinx answered, letting her own irritation show. "And I want the truth this time."

"You think I've lied to you?"

"I know you have. It doesn't take a genius to realize that your 'no big deal' control issues are actually a big deal."

"They weren't that big of a deal."

"They weren't?" Jinx asked incredulously. "You get irritated about something Changling says, and the stove explodes. You get angry about something, and the engine in Cyborg's car explodes. And that's in the garage in the Tower's base! Don't tell me it's not that big of a deal!" Raven opened her mouth to speak, but Jinx didn't give her a chance to talk. "And what about your nightmares? I know they kept waking you up, even after you lied to me about them stopping! Did you think I was really asleep next to you every time that happened? Raven, I loved you. You should have known you could tell me anything, and it would have stayed between us unless you said otherwise! I could've helped you, damnit!"

"Loved?" Raven whispered hoarsely. "Not love?"

"The girl I fell in love with two years ago wouldn't have done what you did. How can I love someone who doesn't love me?"

"I do love you!"

"Do you? Really? I wish I could believe that now. But your actions say you don't."

"If it weren't for me, you could've been badly hurt several times during missions!"

"Several times, I had to rely on one of the others to help me because you lost control of yourself! I couldn't rely on you then, Raven! And I can't rely on you now!"

"My problems weren't my fault! They were Blood's!"

"Sure," Jinx drawled sarcastically. During their growing argument, the two had unknowingly moved closer and closer together, even as their voices got louder and louder. "Blame the guy you murdered!"

"He was the muderer! Do you know how many people he's killed?"

"I don't care! You killed him! Think about that! He's the villain! You're the hero! The hero is supposed to bring villains to justice, not judgement!"

"Are you saying he didn't deserve to die?"

"I'm saying it wasn't your place to decide! And you can't blame your fucking nightmares on him!"

"He can manipulate minds! He probably was behind them!"

"Probably? That's all you've got? Probably?" Jinx snorted in derision. "You can't even defend yourself properly!"

"I shouldn't have to defend myself! Especially against you!" Raven snapped at her. "Where do you get off lecturing me about good and evil? You were a villain!"

"I never murdered anybody!" the hex girl yelled. Unbeknownst to them, Nightwing and Cyborg had vacated the Tower by T-Jet the moment Raven left the common room. "I never rejected the help of my friends! I didn't lie to the woman I love!"

"How could anyone have helped me with controlling my emotions?" the goth girl yelled back. Lights throughout the Tower were exploding (the stove had already exploded, again), and the elevators where shaking badly. "My powers are tied to my emotions! You know that! I have to control my emotions to control my powers!"

"Yeah, you're doing a fantastic job on that!"

"Shut up."

"That's your problem, you know that? You're so afraid of losing control of your powers that you don't realize that that's the problem!"

"Shut up!"

"Stop being afraid of your fucking emotions!"

"Shut up!"

"You're not listening to me!" Jinx screamed. "I hate you!"

"SHUT UP!"

With that, Raven's tenuous control snapped and a burst of dark energy slammed Jinx into the wall with tremendous force. The only thing that stopped her from going through the wall was Raven's shock at what she had done.

And Jinx wasn't moving.

Raven yanked her communicator out of her pocket as she ran to Jinx, and frantically called up Cyborg.

"I need help! Please, Cyborg! I need you here! Now!"

By the time Cyborg, Nightwing, Starfire, and Changling had gotten back to the Tower, Raven had already carried Jinx to the infirmary and hooked her up to the medical systems. She was freaking out, badly; tears were streaming down her face like a water through a river during flood season. Cyborg took over, with Changling's help, while Nightwing and Starfire helped Raven leave. They took her to the common room, and sat her down. Nightwing stayed silent, while Starfire gently coaxed the story of what had happened out of Raven. It took a while, because Raven kept breaking down into soul-shaking tears, but the two finally learned what happened. And while this proved that Raven no longer had control of herself, neither even thought to say so; it was evident that Raven realized this herself.

"She hates me," she whispered softly.

"You do not know that," Starfire said gently.

"She said so. And after this, she'll want to kill me."

"That's not true, Raven," Nightwing told her.

"I wouldn't blame her," Raven went on, not listening.

"Raven!" Nightwing's raised voice finally drew her attention. "You don't need to be talking like that," he said more gently.

"Nightwing, I hurt her!" she wailed. "I could have killed her! I hate myself, and she already hated me." She stood up. "I need to go." Before they could stop her, Raven teleported out of the common room.

Raven went to visit her emotions. To her surprise, they were all there to greet her. Even Anger. Surprising her further, they all (including Anger) hugged her. She couldn't hold it together any longer (not that she'd been holding it together too well before that); she broke down completely and cried out her heart and soul. She had no sensation of how much time passed, but eventually the wracking sobs gave way to hitching, tear-filled breathing and finally to silence. All of her emotions let go and stood up; except for Anger.

"I'm so sorry," the emotion whispered, angry at herself. "I warned you what was happening, but I wasn't strong enough to stop it."

"It's not your fault," she whispered. "It's mine. All of you are tied to my powers, and I thought that controlling you was what I needed to do to control my powers. All that did was allow them to go out of control."

"Raven, the responsibility may be yours," Knowledge said, "but the fault lies elsewhere."

"We . . . we lear-learned w-who has L-Lo-Love," Timid stuttured from behind the green-clad emotion.

"It's Trigon," said an uncharacteristically subdued Happy. The mention of that name made her heart stop.

"What?" she whispered, hugging Anger to her.

"Trigon is behind all of this," Knowledge told her. "He's the one who caused those nightmares, who tricked and stole Love from us. He's the reason for all of this!"

"How did you figure that out?"

"Not easily; he did very well in covering his tracks. But he wasn't good enough. Or, rather, Courage met up with Tenacity and they hounded the shadow hiding in your mind until their refusal to quit - in spite of getting their asses kicked several times - brought it down." Knowledge's gaze hardened. "I convinced it to talk."

"He will pay for what he's done," Raven vowed quietly.

"We go to the dimension he's in, and we won't win," Knowledge told her. "He'll have all of the advantages. Power, knowledge of the dimension itself, everything."

"There's one advantage I . . . we have that he won't," Raven said, looking Anger in the eyes.

"What could that possibly be?" Knowledge asked. The answer was delivered by both Raven and Anger.

"He isn't even a fraction as pissed off as we are."

After Jinx recovered, she left the Tower and the Titans behind. No word, no good-bye, just packed up some of ther stuff and left. It wasn't until the pink-haired girl had left, though, that everyone realized Raven was gone, too. They searched the damaged Tower up and down, inside and out, but she was nowhere to be found.

When Raven arrived in the dimension in which her demon father was imprisoned, he had been expecting her. But her assessment of her advantage had been correct; even as angry and vengeful as he was towards her for thwarting his attempts to take over her home dimension, it was like the flame of a candle compared to the supernova of Raven's anger. She ripped through the monsters and creatures he'd set to delay her as though they were cardboard. And when she reached him, she didn't give him a chance to monologue.

And as badly ripped apart as Blood had been when Raven had given in to her demonic heritage, it was nothing compared to what she did to the demon that had spawned her.

No more would Trigon interfere with her dimension. Or any dimension, for that matter.

Six Months Later

Raven entered the Titans' Tower common room and found Cyborg and Changling playing a video game with less than stellar enthusiasm. Starfire just cuddled on the couch next to Nightwing, not even paying any attention to what was happening in the game.

"Hey, guys," Raven said, startling everyone completely. Starfire shot into the air so fast she rammed through the ceiling, Nightwing fell off the couch with a loud thump, Changling turned a mouse with a scream that morphed into a squeak, and Cyborg whipped around with his sonic cannon at the ready - his game controller crushed in his other hand. Raven raised her hands up and said, "I surrender." For a split second, nothing happened. Then everyone yelled and rushed her, crushing her into a group hug. Laughing along with the others, Raven finally broke free of the embrace and stepped back.

"I'm happy to see all of you," she said, smiling.

"Where have you been gone for so long, friend Raven?" Starfire asked. "We have been missing you with much greatness."

"I . . . had to take care of some . . . family issues," she replied. "And then I had to get myself straight."

"Are you talking about Trigon?" Nightwing asked.

"Not in the present tense," she said softly. Immediately, the others guessed what she had done - and their reaction surprised her.

"That bastard was behind everything, wasn't he?" Changling growled.

"Yeah," she confirmed. "He'd been telling Blood what to do to get me to the edge, while he was infiltrating my subconscious to manipulate me via my dreams."

"Those nightmares you had," Cyborg said. "They were his fault."

"Yeah, but everything else was mine," she told them. She looked around, but knew she wouldn't be here.

"Jinx left," she said.

"After you did, we believe," Nightwing replied. "Since we didn't know when you'd left.

"There's no way she will forgive me."

"You don't know that," Changling said.

"I wish I could believe that, Changling, I really do," Raven said wistfully. "But I said some cruel things to her when we fought, and then I almost slammed her into a wall. I could have killed her."

"Well, we're all glad you're back," Nightwing said.

That night, Nightwing found Raven standing atop the Tower.

"I thought you'd be up here," he said, coming up next to her.

"One of the quietest places here," she replied.

"You should know that the H.I.V.E. Five are back," he told her. "And Jinx is leading them again."

"I'm not surprised," she answered. "I hurt her badly. Not just physically, either. Those kind of wounds can heal."

"We'll have to fight them one day."

"Don't hurt Jinx."

"Raven, we'll have to stop her."

"No."

"Raven-"

"You stop the other four; let her come to me."

"If what you said is true, and I'm not doubting you, then she'll try to kill you."

"I know."

"Don't use too much force stopping her."

"I don't plan on stopping her."

"What?" he said incredulously. "Raven, if she's going to try to kill you, then you have to stop her!"

"Nightwing," she said, looking him in the eye, "I deserve whatever she does to me."

"I won't let that happen!"

"It's not your choice."

"You can't do this!"

"I can, and I will," she said with finality. "And I want you to promise not to stop her until she's done."

"I can't! I can't do that!"

"Promise me."

"Raven."

She just looked at him. Sighing, he gave in - as they had both known he would. "Fine," he said, "I promise."

The others, when they learned what Raven planned to do, reacted just like Nightwing had. But in the end, they all promised not to get involved - no matter what.

Author's Note 2: And there you have it. The chapter that explains how the prologue came about. I hope I met everyone's expectations for this; I know that's one reason why y'all kept reading it. Once again, I apologize for how long it took to get this out; I wanted to do right by you, the readers. Please let me know if you liked it - or not. Though I hope you did.

In The Next Chapter: Next time, you will learn what happens after 'This Beginning Could Be The End'. Saying anything more would be giving spoilers this time. Guess you'll have to read it to find out. :D