Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or anything affiliated with it.

As far as Robin was concerned, his plan had worked: the tracker he'd planted on Raven's assailant was still relaying the location to the communicator on his R-Cycle. Above him, the others were flying through the cold evening sky towards their targeted destination, Starfire carrying Cyborg, who was directing the airborne Titans.

Raven could feel the concern of her teammates. She was trying her best to ignore it, despite it growing stronger the closer they flew to the supposed base. She was fine after the attack – a bit shocked maybe, but fine. As soon as Robin had announced that he'd planted a tracking device, the team had immediately began strategizing their plan. It had taken many hours as a result of her stubbornness clashing with that of her leader's: he didn't want her going, but she finally persuaded him. Deciding it was better to strike sooner rather than later, they left after dinner. The sky was already starting to darken.

"How you holdin' up?" Cyborg asked.

Raven rolled her eyes. "For the last time, I'm –"

"Fine. Yeah, I know."

"Then why ask?" Raven retorted, trying to keep her frustration bottled.

"Because we're about to enter the base of an organization where the enemies want you dead."

"Wouldn't be the first time…" she said, smirking and flying away from her older brother. While she appreciated the support – although she'd never admit it – it was beginning to make her feel nauseous, and putting on her confidence façade was getting more difficult as every hour crept closer to the next.

Watching Raven distance herself from Cyborg and Starfire, Beast Boy flew closer to her, letting her know he was there. That was all she needed.

They arrived a few minutes later, touching down on the ground next to Robin's R-Cycle. The plan was simple: enter, attack, find out more about the operation, leave. However, as they all headed for different entrances, they knew that the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry…

Raven and Starfire were heading for the rooftop entrances while the men covered the front and back of the building; it was a place they'd rarely been to in their years protecting Jump City: the laboratories of a minor science research centre. Questioning whether this was the right location, Raven decided to trust the tracking device: if this is where it said the bastard was, then so be it.

She opened the door silently using her ethereal energy, not wanting to alert anyone to her presence. Floating off the floor to avoid activating any pressured alarms, she signalled to Starfire before going through the threshold. No alarms. Relieved, Raven slowly continued down the corridor wishing that Starfire was with her. The hallway had many paths she could take, but she decided to keep going straight, trusting her instincts.

A few metres further up, she suddenly felt a presence. Cursing, she dove through the first door she came across, closing it firmly and pressing her back to it. From the corridor, she could hear voices.

"The bitch would have been mine if it wasn't for that robot."

"Lindon isn't going to be pleased."

"Fuck him. I wish I'd never signed up to this."

"Like we had a choice…"

Their voices quietened as they disappeared around a corner. Raven took a deep breath before sinking through the wall into the corridor again. She levitated in their direction, hoping to overhear more information. She caught up to them quicker than expected, watching as they scanned their identification badges to assess a locked room. They entered, and it was then that Raven saw the guns at their sides. She gulped at the thought of the weapons being used on her, an aftershock effect from her encounters with Lyle.

Swallowing her fear, she made a quick decision. She had to know what they wanted. Taking the risk, she hid around a deserted corner and summoned her soul self to abandon her body. She swiftly flew through the narrow gap in the door before the room locked firmly behind her. Blending into the corner of the ceiling, she watched as the two men she'd heard approached a magnificent mahogany desk. A chair spun around to reveal a man in an impressive suit and lab coat.

"I see you were unsuccessful," he stated calmly, looking at the one who'd attacked her.

"We were… intercepted," the man said.

"I haven't spent years on this operation for it to fail because you were 'intercepted'."

"My apologies, Doctor Lindon."

He sounded a lot more sincere now than he did when she heard him cursing Lindon.

"First Lyle, now you. I'm starting to think everybody I hire is useless," he hissed. "I need Raven here – alive or dead! Is that so difficult!"

Before the man could reply, Lindon stood up. That's when she heard the trigger. She recoiled as blood splattered onto the wall near where she was hiding. She had to leave.

"Unless you want to end up like this idiot, I suggest you and your team find a way to bring the demon girl to me before the end of the week," Lindon said in a low tone, placing his weapon down gently on the desk to face him.

The other man nodded, not turning his back as he exited the room. She waited for Lindon's chair to turn around again so she could make her escape, but it didn't move. He was staring at the blood on his wall directly left to where she was. It was like he knew she was there. That was when he looked into the corner. He looked fixatedly at it – at her – although she knew none of her could be seen in her ethereal form. She was growing weaker having been away from her body for too long. Finally the chair turned and she disappeared through the door just as it shut – another narrow escape.

Raven's soul-self flew down the corridor back to the where her body was hiding. It was gone.

She tried to keep calm and rationalise where she would have been taken: did Lindon's man hit the jackpot and find her lying there helpless? She would have passed him so she ruled that out. Maybe she'd taken a wrong turn in her weakened state.

Suddenly she heard a welcomed voice: Beast Boy's.

"Come on Rae, wake up."

She felt herself being pulled in another direction, now she knew where she was being held. Her soul rushed back towards her body that was being propped upright by the changeling as he shook her lifeless form. He nearly dropped her when he saw the black bird soar into her chest and her eyes open.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack!" Beast Boy whispered harshly, supporting her because she didn't have the strength to do it herself. "Where did you go?"

"I'll tell you outside," she said breathlessly, feeling nauseous as she recalled the gun shot. Beast Boy took that as their cue to leave.

"Are you alright to teleport? I could carry you but we might be-"

"I'll be fine," she assured him although he didn't believe her: he knew that prolonged use of her powers caused extreme fatigue. "Just transform into something small to make it easier."

He obliged, shrinking down to a spider and crawling onto her belt. A moment later, he saw the outside world. He retransformed into his human self and let Raven lean on him as her body failed to support itself once more. He checked she was alright before using his communicator to let the others know where they were.

"Raven and I are outside. She got some intel."

Robin didn't miss the concerned look on Beast Boy's face. "What happened?"

He looked down to the girl next to him, wondering the same thing. "She's gonna tell us when we're all here. She's too tired to talk now."

"We'll be there in a bit," Cyborg confirmed. Beast Boy nodded, closing the communicator and turning back to Raven. She was shaking.

"You shouldn't have used your powers like that," he said, thinking the shaking was because she had exhausted herself, not because she'd watched a man get murdered right in front of her.

Before she could stop herself, she curled onto her side and vomited on the grass. Dignity gone, she wiped her mouth and lay down on the ground, her head lightly colliding with the soft earth… like the man's did… when his skull shattered…

Footsteps vibrated from beneath her head as the others ran over. Seeing the sick and Raven lying down, Cyborg knelt down next to her.

"So this is fine," he smirked, trying to lighten the mood. He opened a compartment of his arm to reveal a plastic straw. He handed it to her to drink from. Raven thanked him, talking small gulps of water to relieve her nausea.

"I think we should return to the tower before we are noticed," Starfire suggested. "Do you require the lift, Raven?"

Beast Boy intervened, saying it would be a smoother ride on his back as opposed to being dangled through the air. Starfire understood, lifting Cyborg off the ground instead and setting off for their home.

"Come on," Beast Boy said, carefully helping Raven onto his back. "You just relax."

She followed his advice, allowing Beast Boy to do the hard work. She watched Robin speed away from the research centre on his R-Cycle then closed her eyes and rested for the short flight home.

The last droplets of blood had been cleared from the office wall and the body disposed of. Yet something was still bothering him. Something he couldn't put his finger on. He was watching back the security footage, rewinding the same few seconds when his employees entered - and only one left.

That's when he noticed it: the sudden black rush on the screen that disappeared as soon as he blinked, so fast that he wasn't sure it was real. But it was. She had been there. He reached for his phone and dialled a number.

"You now have two days and I want her alive!"

He hung up before it could be argued, wondering if it would be easier to get his own hands dirty.

The Titans were sitting around the kitchen table, ready for bed but knowing they had to feedback from their recon mission. All eyes immediately turned to the demoness.

"I'll go first shall I?" she deadpanned, taking a sip of tea to calm her nerves. Beast Boy giggling made her feel slightly more at ease; Robin's seriousness from across the table didn't.

"I overheard a conversation between two men. One of them invaded the tower earlier."

"How do you know?" Cyborg asked.

"Because I doubt they tried to grab two bitches and got intercepted by robots. They mentioned someone called Lindon so I followed them into his office. I used my soul-self to enter undetected."

"What did you see that made you sick?" her leader asked sympathetically when Raven paused.

"Doctor Lindon… shot… the one who attacked me… in the head."

Robin nodded, holding up his hand to signal that she didn't need to continue.

"I heard the gunshot," Beast Boy added, all eyes turning on him. "That's when I found you in the hallway."

"I'm glad you found me before the other guy did."

"What other guy?"

She turned to Cyborg, explaining, "Doctor Lindon told the other man that he would kill him too."

"If…" Robin said, knowing that that wasn't the end of the sentence.

"If he didn't bring me to Lindon by the end of the week."

Robin's head dropped into his hands. He was tired of his whole situation. He was tired of his team being threatened.

"Did Doctor Lindon turn up in any of your searches?" Raven asked the others because he didn't in any of hers. Cyborg and Robin shook their heads.

When Robin suggested looking him up, Starfire intervened, sensibly stating that they all needed some sleep and that the Lindon search could wait a few more hours.

Agreeing, Raven said, "I'm going to the safety room," standing and walking away from the table sluggishly. She was still drowsy and too tired to argue anymore. She'd finally accepted that was the best place for her to be, no matter how much she'd protested it before. The others looked relieved, softly smiling.

"I'll take you down," Cyborg said before she could change her mind, escorting her from the room. They started walking together but Cyborg soon swept her up in his arms, seeing how slowly she was walking, just like the last time she'd stayed in the safety room when the prophecy was revealed. He gave her a small squeeze before setting her down on two feet again so his arms were free to unlock the locks on the door – all ten of them. He pushed open the door and walked her inside the room. The large space unnerved her.

"Look Rae, I know you hate it in here but you're making the right decision."

She nodded, looking at the lonely bed in the corner of the room. She teetered over to it, pulling back the covers and sitting on it. It wasn't as comfortable as her usual bed, but it would do for now.

"I'll be right up there," the half-robot reassured her, pointing to the monitoring space behind the glass. It wasn't reassuring at all for her though, knowing that someone would be watching her for most of the night - even if it was someone she trusted with her life.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight Raven."

Her head hit the pillows as the door slammed shut.